Choice functions for autonomous search in constraint programming: GA vs. PSO

Heurističke metode nizanja vrijednosti i varijabli su ključni element u ograničenom programiranju. Poznate su kao strategija nabrajanja i mogu značajno utjecati na postupak rješavanja problema. Međutim, prilično je teško izabrati odgovarajući heuristički postupak jer je komplicirano predvidjeti njihovo ponašanje. U zadnje je vrijeme za tu svrhu predloženo samostalno (autonomno) pretraživanje. Ideja je da se strategije koje su se pokazale lošima tijekom postupka rješavanja dinamički zamijene onima koje više obećavaju. Ta se zamjena izvodi korištenjem funkcije izbora, koja u zadanom vremenu procijenjuje ponuđenu strategiju preko indikatora kvalitete. Važnu ulogu u tom procesu ima optimizator kojemu je cilj fino podešavanje funkcije izbora kako bi se garantirala precizna procjena strategija. U ovom radu evaluiramo karakteristike dviju jakih funkcija izbora: prvu podržava genetski algoritam, a drugu optimizator roja čestica. Dajemo interesantne rezultate i demonstriramo mogućnost korištenja tih metoda optimiziranja za samostalno pretraživanje u kontekstu ograničenog programiranja.The variable and value ordering heuristics are a key element in Constraint Programming. Known together as the enumeration strategy they may have important consequences on the solving process. However, a suitable selection of heuristics is quite hard as their behaviour is complicated to predict. Autonomous search has been recently proposed to handle this concern. The idea is to dynamically replace strategies that exhibit poor performances by more promising ones during the solving process. This replacement is carried out by a choice function, which evaluates a given strategy in a given amount of time via quality indicators. An important phase of this process is performed by an optimizer, which aims at finely tuning the choice function in order to guarantee a precise evaluation of strategies. In this paper we evaluate the performance of two powerful choice functions: the first one supported by a genetic algorithm and the second one by a particle swarm optimizer. We present interesting results and we demonstrate the feasibility of using those optimization techniques for Autonomous Search in a Constraint Programming context

Development and application of hyperheuristics to personnel scheduling

This thesis is concerned with the investigation of hyperheuristic techniques. Hyperheuristics are heuristics which choose heuristics in order to solve a given optimisation problem. In this thesis we investigate and develop a number of hyperheuristic techniques including a hyperheuristic which uses a choice function in order to select which low-level heuristic to apply at each decision point. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our hyperheuristics by means of three personnel scheduling problems taken from the real world. For each application problem, we apply our hyperheuristics to several instances and compare our results with those of other heuristic methods. For all problems, the choice function hyperheuristic appears to be superior to other hyperheuristics considered. It also produces results competitive with those obtained using other sophisticated means. It is hoped that - hyperheuristics can produce solutions of good quality, often competitive with those of modern heuristic techniques, within a short amount of implementation and development time, using only simple and easy-to-implement low-level heuristics. - hyperheuristics are easily re-usable methods as opposed to some metaheuristic methods which tend to use extensive problem-specific information in order to arrive at good solutions. These two latter points constitute the main contributions of this thesis

Development and application of hyperheuristics to personnel scheduling

This thesis is concerned with the investigation of hyperheuristic techniques. Hyperheuristics are heuristics which choose heuristics in order to solve a given optimisation problem. In this thesis we investigate and develop a number of hyperheuristic techniques including a hyperheuristic which uses a choice function in order to select which low-level heuristic to apply at each decision point. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our hyperheuristics by means of three personnel scheduling problems taken from the real world. For each application problem, we apply our hyperheuristics to several instances and compare our results with those of other heuristic methods. For all problems, the choice function hyperheuristic appears to be superior to other hyperheuristics considered. It also produces results competitive with those obtained using other sophisticated means. It is hoped that - hyperheuristics can produce solutions of good quality, often competitive with those of modern heuristic techniques, within a short amount of implementation and development time, using only simple and easy-to-implement low-level heuristics. - hyperheuristics are easily re-usable methods as opposed to some metaheuristic methods which tend to use extensive problem-specific information in order to arrive at good solutions. These two latter points constitute the main contributions of this thesis

Case Based Heuristic Selection for Timetabling Problems

This paper presents a case-based heuristic selection approach for automated university course and exam timetabling. The method described in this paper is motivated by the goal of developing timetabling systems that are fundamentally more general than the current state of the art. Heuristics that worked well in previous similar situations are memorized in a case base and are retrieved for solving the problem in hand. Knowledge discovery techniques are employed in two distinct scenarios. Firstly, we model the problem and the problem solving situations along with specific heuristics for those problems. Secondly, we refine the case base and discard cases which prove to be non-useful in solving new problems. Experimental results are presented and analyzed. It is shown that case based reasoning can act effectively as an intelligent approach to learn which heuristics work well for particular timetabling situations. We conclude by outlining and discussing potential research issues in this critical area of knowledge discovery for different difficult timetabling problems

Bus route design and frequency setting for public transit systems

Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2022.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The availability of effective public transport systems is increasingly becoming an urgent problem in urban areas worldwide due to the traffic congestion caused by private vehicles. The careful design of such a transport system is important because, if well designed, such a system can increase the comfort of commuters and ensure that they arrive at their destinations timeously. A well-designed public transport system can also result in considerable cost savings for the operator of the system. The problem considered in this dissertation is that of designing three mathematical models for aiding a bus company in deciding upon efficient bus transit routes (facilitated by the first two models) and setting appropriate frequencies for buses along these routes (facilitated by the third model). The design criteria embedded in the first model (for designing bus routes) are the simultaneous pursuit of minimising the expected average passenger travel time and minimising the system operator’s cost (measuring the latter as the sum total of all route lengths in the system). The first model takes as input an origin-destination demand matrix for a specified set of bus stops, along with the corresponding road network structure, and returns as output a set of bus route solutions. The decision maker can then select one of these route sets subjectively, based on the desired trade-off achieved between the aforementioned transit system design criteria. This bi-objective minimisation problem is solved approximately in three distinct stages — a solution initialisation stage, an intermediate analysis stage and an iterative metaheuristic search stage during which high-quality trade-off solutions are sought. A novel procedure is introduced for the solution initialisation stage aimed at effectively generating high-quality initial feasible solutions. Two metaheuristics are adopted for the solution implementation, namely a dominance-based multi-objective simulated annealing algorithm and an improved non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm. The second model is a novel approach towards establishing high-quality bus routes resembling a reference set of bus routes (typically the currently operational bus routes) to varying degrees, providing the decision maker with bus route design alternatives that may be implemented incre mentally in order to limit the disruption experienced by passengers in the bus transit network. The objectives pursued in this model are the simultaneous minimisation of the expected aver age passenger travel time and the minimisation of a reference-route-to-design-route similarity measure. The second model takes the same input as the first model above, with the addition of a reference route set with which to compare alternative design routes in terms of similarity, and provides as output a set of trade-off solutions according to this model’s design criteria. The same three-stage approximate solution methodology described above is adopted for this model, and the same two metaheuristic implementations are utilised to solve instances of this new model. In the third model, high-quality bus frequencies are sought for each bus route in pursuit of min imising the expected average travel time for passengers (including waiting time, transfer time and travel time) and simultaneously minimising the total number of buses required by an operator to maintain the specified frequencies. The third model takes as input all the data required by the first model, along with a route set for which frequencies should be set, and returns as output a set of bus frequencies at which buses should operate along the various routes, based on a de sired trade-off between the aforementioned two design criteria. The solution approach adopted for this bi-objective minimisation problem again conforms to the three aforementioned distinct stages, with the exception that only a non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm is designed for solving it. The first and third models are finally applied to a special case study involving real data in order to showcase the practical applicability of the modelling approach.AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die beskikbaarheid van doeltreffende openbare vervoerstelsels word wˆereldwyd toenemend ’n dringende probleem in stedelike gebiede as gevolg van die verkeersopeenhopings wat deur private voertuie veroorsaak word. Die noukeurige ontwerp van so ’n vervoerstelsel is belangrik, want as dit goed ontwerp is, kan so ’n stelsel die gemak van pendelaars verhoog en verseker dat hul betyds by hul bestemmings aankom. ’n Goed-ontwerpte openbare vervoerstelsel kan ook aansienlike kostebesparings vir die stelseloperateur tot gevolg hˆe. Die probleem wat in hierdie proefskrif oorweeg word, is die ontwerp van drie wiskundige modelle om ’n busonderneming daartoe in staat te stel om besluite oor doeltreffende busvervoerroetes (die eerste twee modelle) en die geskikte frekwensies vir busse langs hierdie roetes (die derde model) te neem. Die ontwerpkriteria in die eerste model (vir die ontwerp van busroetes) is die gelyktydige strewe daarna om die verwagte gemiddelde reistyd van passasiers te minimeer en die koste van die stelseloperateur te minimeer (laasgenoemde gemeet as die somtotaal van alle roetelengtes in die stelsel). Die eerste model neem as toevoer ’n oorsprong-bestemming aan vraagmatriks vir ’n spesifieke stel bushaltes, tesame met die ooreenstemmende padnetwerkstruk tuur, en lewer as afvoer ’n versameling busroetestelle. Die besluitnemer kan dan een van hierdie roetestelle subjektief kies, gebaseer op die gewenste afruiling tussen die bogenoemde ontwerpkri teria. Hierdie twee-doelige minimeringsprobleem word in drie verskillende fases benaderd opgelos — ’n oplossingsinisialiseringsfase, ’n intermediˆere analise-fase en ’n iteratiewe metaheuristiese soekfase waartydens afruilingssoplossings van ho¨e gehalte gesoek word. ’n Nuwe prosedure word vir die oplossingsinisialiseringsfase daargestel wat daarop gemik is om aanvanklike haalbare oplossings van ho¨e gehalte op ’n doeltreffende wyse te genereer. Twee meteheuristieke word vir die oplossing van die model gebruik, naamlik ’n dominansie-gebaseerde meer-doelige ge simuleerde temeperingsalgoritme en ’n verbeterde nie-gedomineerde sorteer-genetiese algoritme. Die tweede model is ’n nuwe benadering om busroetes van ho¨e gehalte te vestig wat in verskil lende mates ooreenkomste met ’n verwysingstel busroetes (tipies die huidige stel operasionele roetes) toon, en bied die besluitnemer alternatiewe vir busroetes wat geleidelik ge¨ımplementeer kan word om die ontwrigting van passasiers in die busvervoernetwerk te beperk. Die doele wat in hierdie model nagestreef word, is die gelyktydige minimering van die verwagte gemiddelde passas ier se reistyd en die minimering van ’n verwysingsroete-na-ontwerp-roete ooreenkomsmaatstaf. Die tweede model neem dieselfde toevoere as die eerste model hierbo, met die byvoeging van ’n verwysingsroete waarmee alternatiewe ontwerproetestelle in terme van ooreenkoms vergelyk kan word, en bied as afvoer ’n stel afruilingsoplossings volgens die model se ontwerpkriteria. Die selfde drie-fase benaderde oplos-singsmetode hierbo beskryf, word op hierdie model toegepas, en dieselfde twee metaheuristiese implementerings word gebruik om gevalle van hierdie nuwe model op te los. In die derde model word busfrekwensies van ho¨e gehalte vir elke busroete gesoek om die verwagte gemiddelde reistyd van passasiers (insluitend wagtyd, oorklimtyd en werklike reistyd) te minimeer en terselfdertyd die totale aantal busse wat ’n operateur benodig, te minimeer terwyl die gespesifiseerde frekwensies gehandhaaf word. Die derde model neem dieselfde toevoerdata as die eerste model, tesame met ’n roete waarvoor frekwensies vasgestel moet word, en lewer as afvoer ’n stel busfrekwensies waarteen busse langs die verskillende roetes ontplooi moet word, gebaseer op ’n gewenste afruiling tussen die bogenoemde twee ontwerpkriteria. Die oplossingsbenadering wat op hierdie tweedoelige minimeringsprobleem toegepas word, volg weer die bogenoemde drie fases, met die uitsondering dat slegs ’n nie-gedomineerde sorteer-genetiese algoritme ontwerp word om dit op te los. Die eerste en derde modelle word uiteindelik op ’n spesiale gevallestudie toegepas wat op werklike data gebaseer is om sodoende die praktiese toepaslikheid van die modelleringsbenadering te illustreer.Doctora

Multiobjective in-core fuel management optimisation for nuclear research reactors

Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2016.ENGLISH SUMMARY : The efficiency and effectiveness of fuel usage in a typical nuclear reactor is influenced by the specific arrangement of available fuel assemblies in the reactor core positions. This arrangement of assemblies is referred to as a fuel reload configuration and usually has to be determined anew for each operational cycle of a reactor. Very often, multiple objectives are pursued simultaneously when designing a reload configuration, especially in the context of nuclear research reactors. In the multiobjective in-core fuel management optimization (MICFMO) problem, the aim is to identify a Pareto optimal set of compromise or trade-off reload configurations. Such a set may then be presented to a decision maker (i.e. a nuclear reactor operator) for consideration so as to select a preferred configuration. In the first part of this dissertation, a secularization-based methodology for MICFMO is pro- posed in order to address several shortcomings associated with the popular weighting method often employed in the literature for solving the MICFMO problem. The proposed methodology has been implemented in a reactor simulation code, called the OSCAR-4 system. In order to demonstrate its practical applicability, the methodology is applied to solve several MICFMO problem instances in the context of two research reactors. In the second part of the dissertation, an extensive investigation is conducted into the suitability of several multiobjective optimization algorithms for solving the constrained MICFMO problem. The computation time required to perform the investigation is reduced through the usage of several artificial neural networks constructed in the dissertation for objective and constraint function evaluations. Eight multiobjective metaheuristics are compared in the context of a test suite of several MICFMO problem instances, based on the SAFARI-1 research reactor in South Africa. The investigation reveals that the NSGA-II, the P-ACO algorithm and the MOOCEM are generally the best-performing metaheuristics across the problem instances in the test suite, while the MOVNS algorithm also performs well in the context of bi-objective problem instances. As part of this investigation, a multiplicative penalty function (MPF) constraint handling technique is also proposed and compared to an existing constraint handling technique, called constrained-domination. The comparison reveals that the MPF technique is a competitive alternative to constrained-domination. In an attempt to raise the level of generality at which MICFMO may be performed and potentially improve the quality of optimization results, a multiobjective hyperheuristic, called the AMALGAM method, is also considered in this dissertation. This hyperheuristic incorporates multiple metaheuristic sub-algorithms simultaneously for optimization. Testing reveals that the AMALGAM method yields superior results in the majority of problem instances in the test suite, thus achieving the dual goal of raising the level of generality and of yielding improved optimization results. The method has also been implemented in the OSCAR-4 system and is applied to solve several MICFMO case study problem instances, based on two research reactors, in order to demonstrate its practical applicability. Finally, in the third part of this dissertation, a conceptual framework is proposed for an optimization-based personal decision support system, dedicated to MICFM. This framework may serve as the basis for developing a computerized tool to aid nuclear reactor operators in designing suitable reload configurations.AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING : Die doeltreffendheid en doelmatigheid van brandstofverbruik in 'n tipiese kernreaktor word deur die spesieke rangskikking van beskikbare brandstofelemente in die laaiposisies van die reaktor beinvloed. Hierdie rangskikking staan bekend as 'n brandstof herlaaikongurasie en word gewoonlik opnuut bepaal vir elke operasionele siklus van 'n reaktor. Die gelyktydige optimering van veelvuldige doele word dikwels tydens die ontwerp van 'n herlaaikongurasie nagestreef, veral binne die konteks van navorsingsreaktore. Die doelwit van meerdoelige binne-kern brandstofbeheeroptimering (MBKBBO) is om 'n Pareto optimale versameling van herlaaikongurasieafruilings te identiseer. So 'n versameling mag dan vir oorweging (deur byvoorbeeld 'n kernreaktoroperateur) voorgele word sodat 'n voorkeurkongurasie gekies kan word. In die eerste gedeelte van hierdie proefskrif word 'n skalariseringsgebaseerde metodologie vir MBKBBO voorgestel om verskeie tekortkominge in die gewilde gewigverswaringsmetode aan te spreek. Laasgenoemde metode word gereeld in die literatuur gebruik om die MBKBBO probleem op te los. Die voorgestelde metodologie is in 'n reaktorsimulasiestelsel, bekend as die OSCAR-4 stelsel, geimplementeer. Om die praktiese toepasbaarheid daarvan te demonstreer, word die metodologie gebruik om 'n aantal MBKBBO probleemgevalle binne die konteks van twee navorsingsreaktore op te los. In die tweede gedeelte van die proefskrif word 'n uitgebreide ondersoek ingestel om die geskiktheid van verskeie meerdoelige optimeringsalgoritmes vir die oplos van die beperkte MBKBBO probleem te bepaal. Die berekeningstyd wat vir die ondersoek benodig word, word verminder deur die gebruik van kunsmatige neurale netwerke, wat in die proefskrif gekonstrueer word, om doelfunksies en beperkings te evalueer. Agt meerdoelige metaheuristieke word binne die konteks van verskeie MBKBBO toetsprobleemgevalle vergelyk wat op die SAFARI-1 navorsingsreaktor in Suid-Afrika gebaseer is. Toetse dui daarop dat die NSGA-II, die P-ACO algoritme en die MOOCEM oor die algemeen die beste oor al die toetsprobleemgevalle presteer. Die MOVNS algoritme presteer ook goed in die konteks van tweedoelige probleemgevalle. 'n Vermenigvuldigende boetefunksie (VBF) beperkinghanteringstegniek word ook voorgestel en vergelyk met 'n bestaande tegniek bekend as beperkte dominasie. Daar word bevind dat the VBF tegniek 'n mededingende alternatief tot beperkte dominasie is. 'n Poging word aangewend om die vlak van algemeenheid waarmee MBKBBO uitgevoer word, te verhoog, asook om potensieel die kwaliteit van die optimeringsresultate te verbeter. 'n Meerdoelige hiperheuristiek, bekend as die AMALGAM metode, word in die nastreef van hierdie twee doelwitte oorweeg. Die metode funksioneer deur middel van die gelyktydige insluiting van 'n aantal metaheuristieke deel-algoritmes. Toetse dui daarop dat the AMALGAM metode beter resultate vir die meerderheid van toetsprobleme lewer, en dus word die bogenoemde twee doelwitte bereik. Die metode is ook in the OSCAR-4 stelsel ge mplementeer en word gebruik om 'n aantal MBKBBO gevallestudie probleemgevalle (binne die konteks van twee navorsingsreaktore) op te los. Sodoende word die praktiese toepasbaarheid van die metode gedemonstreer. In die derde deel van die proefskrif word 'n konseptuele raamwerk laastens vir 'n optimeringsgebaseerde persoonlike besluitsteunstelsel gemik op MBKBB, voorgestel. Hierdie raamwerk mag as grondslag dien vir die ontwikkeling van 'n gerekenariseerde hulpmiddel vir kernreaktoroperateurs om aanvaarbare herlaaikongurasies te ontwerp.Doctora

Examination timetabling automation using hybrid meta-heuristics

Trabalho de projeto realizado para obtenção do grau de Mestre em Engenharia Informática e de ComputadoresNos últimos anos, o tema da geração automática de horários tem sido alvo de muito estudo. Em muitas instituições, a elaboração de horários ainda é feita manualmente, constituindo-se uma tarefa demorada e penosa para instâncias de grande dimensão. Outro problema recorrente na abordagem manual é a existência de falhas dada a dificuldade do processo de verificação, e também a qualidade final do horário produzido. Se este fosse criado por computador, o horário seria válido e seriam de esperar horários com qualidade superior dada a capacidade do computador para pesquisar o espaço de soluções. A elaboração de horários não é uma tarefa fácil, mesmo para uma máquina. Por exemplo, horários escolares necessitam de seguir certas regras para que seja possível a criação de um horário válido. Mas como o espaço de estados (soluções) válidas é tão vasto, é impraticável criar um algoritmo que faça a enumeração completa de soluções a fim de escolher a melhor solução possível. Por outro lado, a utilização de algoritmos que realizam a enumeração implícita de soluções (por exemplo, branch and bound), não é viável para problemas de grande dimensão. A utilização de heurísticas que percorrem de uma forma guiada o espaço de estados, conseguindo assim uma solução razoável em tempo útil, constituem uma abordagem adequada para este tipo de problemas. Um dos objetivos do projeto consiste na criação duma abordagem que siga as regras do International Timetabling Competition (ITC) 2007 incidindo na criação de horários de exames em universidades (Examination timetabling track). Este projeto utiliza uma abordagem de heurísticas híbridas. Isto significa que utiliza múltiplas heurísticas para obter a melhor solução possível. Utiliza uma variação da heurística de Graph Coloring para obter uma solução válida e as meta-heurísticas Simulated Annealing e Hill Climbing para melhorar a solução obtida. Os resultados finais são satisfatórios, pois em algumas instâncias os resultados são melhores do que alguns dos cinco finalistas do concurso ITC 2007.Abstract: In the last few years the automatic creation of timetables is being a well-studied subject. In many institutions, the elaboration of timetables is still manual, thus being a time-consuming and difficulty task for large instances. Another current problem in the manual approach is the existence of failures given the difficulty in the process verification, and so the quality of the produced timetable. If this timetable had been created by a computer, the timetable would be valid and timetables with better quality should be obtained, given the computer’s capacity to search the solution space. It is not easy to elaborate timetables, even for a machine. For example, scholar/university timetables need to follow certain type of constraints or rules for them to be considered valid. But since the solution space is so vast, it is highly unlikely to create an algorithm that completely enumerates the solutions in order to choose the best solution possible, considering the problem structure. The use of algorithms that perform implicit enumeration solutions (for example, an branch bound), is not feasible for large problems. Hence the use of heuristics which navigate through the solution space in a guided way, obtaining then a reasonable solution in acceptable time. One main objective of this project consists in creating an approach that follows the International Timetabling Competition (ITC) 2007 rules, focusing on creating examination timetables. This project will use a hybrid approach. This means it will use an approach that includes multiple heuristics in order to find the best possible solution. This approach uses a variant of the Graph Coloring heuristic to find an initial valid solution, and the metaheuristics Simulated Annealing and Hill Climbing to improve that solution. The final results are satisfactory, as in some instances the obtained results beat the results of some of the five finalists from ITC 2007

Técnicas de optimización paralelas : esquema híbrido basado en hiperheurísticas y computación evolutiva

Optimisation is the process of selecting the best element fr om a set of available alternatives. Solutions are termed good or bad depending on its performance for a set of objectives. Several algorithms to deal with such kind of problems have been defined in the literature. Metaheuristics are one of the most prominent techniques. They are a class of modern heuristics whose main goal is to com bine heuristics in a problem independent way with the aim of improving their per formance. Meta- heuristics have reported high-quality solutions in severa l fields. One of the reasons of the good behaviour of metaheuristics is that they are defin ed in general terms. Therefore, metaheuristic algorithms can be adapted to fit th e needs of most real-life optimisation. However, such an adaptation is a hard task, and it requires a high computational and user effort. There are two main ways of reducing the effort associated to th e usage of meta- heuristics. First, the application of hyperheuristics and parameter setting strategies facilitates the process of tackling novel optimisation pro blems and instances. A hyperheuristic can be viewed as a heuristic that iterativel y chooses between a set of given low-level metaheuristics in order to solve an optim isation problem. By using hyperheuristics, metaheuristic practitioners do no t need to manually test a large number of metaheuristics and parameterisations for d iscovering the proper algorithms to use. Instead, they can define the set of configur ations which must be tested, and the model tries to automatically detect the be st-behaved ones, in order to grant more resources to them. Second, the usage of pa rallel environments might speedup the process of automatic testing, so high qual ity solutions might be achieved in less time. This research focuses on the design of novel hyperheuristic s and defines a set of models to allow their usage in parallel environments. Differ ent hyperheuristics for controlling mono-objective and multi-objective multi-po int optimisation strategies have been defined. Moreover, a set of novel multiobjectivisa tion techniques has been proposed. In addition, with the aim of facilitating the usage of multiobjectivi- sation, the performance of models that combine the usage of m ultiobjectivisation and hyperheuristics has been studied. The proper performance of the proposed techniques has been v alidated with a set of well-known benchmark optimisation problems. In addi tion, several practical and complex optimisation problems have been addressed. Som e of the analysed problems arise in the communication field. In addition, a pac king problem proposed in a competition has been faced up. The proposals for such pro blems have not been limited to use the problem-independent schemes. Inste ad, new metaheuristics, operators and local search strategies have been defined. Suc h schemes have been integrated with the designed parallel hyperheuristics wit h the aim of accelerating the achievement of high quality solutions, and with the aim of fa cilitating their usage. In several complex optimisation problems, the current best -known solutions have been found with the methods defined in this dissertation.Los problemas de optimización son aquellos en los que hay que elegir cuál es la solución más adecuada entre un conjunto de alternativas. Actualmente existe una gran cantidad de algoritmos que permiten abordar este tipo de problemas. Entre ellos, las metaheurísticas son una de las técnicas más usadas. El uso de metaheurísticas ha posibilitado la resolución de una gran cantidad de problemas en diferentes campos. Esto se debe a que las metaheurísticas son técnicas generales, con lo que disponen de una gran cantidad de elementos o parámetros que pueden ser adaptados a la hora de afrontar diferentes problemas de optimización. Sin embargo, la elección de dichos parámetros no es sencilla, por lo que generalmente se requiere un gran esfuerzo computacional, y un gran esfuerzo por parte del usuario de estas técnicas. Existen diversas técnicas que atenúan este inconveniente. Por un lado, existen varios mecanismos que permiten seleccionar los valores de dichos parámetros de forma automática. Las técnicas más simples utilizan valores fijos durante toda la ejecución, mientras que las técnicas más avanzadas, como las hiperheurísticas, adaptan los valores usados a las necesidades de cada fase de optimización. Además, estas técnicas permiten usar varias metaheurísticas de forma simultánea. Por otro lado, el uso de técnicas paralelas permite acelerar el proceso de testeo automático, reduciendo el tiempo necesario para obtener soluciones de alta calidad. El objetivo principal de esta tesis ha sido diseñar nuevas hiperheurísticas e integrarlas en el modelo paralelo basado en islas. Estas técnicas se han usado para controlar los parámetros de varias metaheurísticas evolutivas. Se han definido diversas hiperheurísticas que han permitido abordar tanto problemas mono-objetivo como problemas multi-objetivo. Además, se han definido un conjunto de multiobjetivizaciones, que a su vez se han beneficiado de las hiperheurísticas propuestas. Las técnicas diseñadas se han validado con algunos de los problemas de test más ampliamente utilizados. Además, se han abordado un conjunto de problemas de optimización prácticos. Concretamente, se han tratado tres problemas que surgen en el ámbito de las telecomunicaciones, y un problema de empaquetado. En dichos problemas, además de usar las hiperheurísticas y multiobjetivizaciones, se han definido nuevos algoritmos, operadores, y estrategias de búsqueda local. En varios de los problemas, el uso combinado de todas estas técnicas ha posibilitado obtener las mejores soluciones encontradas hasta el momento

Bus driver rostering by hybrid methods based on column generation

Tese de doutoramento, Informática (Engenharia Informática), Universidade de Lisboa, Faculdade de Ciências, 2018Rostering problems arise in a diversity of areas where, according to the business and labor rules, distinct variants of the problem are obtained with different constraints and objectives considered. The diversity of existing rostering problems, allied with their complexity, justifies the activity of the research community addressing them. The current research on rostering problems is mainly devoted to achieving near-optimal solutions since, most of the times, the time needed to obtain optimal solutions is very high. In this thesis, a Bus Driver Rostering Problem is addressed, to which an integer programming model is adapted from the literature, and a new decomposition model with three distinct subproblems representations is proposed. The main objective of this research is to develop and evaluate a new approach to obtain solutions to the problem in study. The new approach follows the concept of search based on column generation, which consists in using the column generation method to solve problems represented by decomposition models and, after, applying metaheuristics to search for the best combination of subproblem solutions that, when combined, result in a feasible integer solution to the complete problem. Besides the new decomposition models proposed for the Bus Driver Rostering Problem, this thesis proposes the extension of the concept of search by column generation to allow using population-based metaheuristics and presents the implementation of the first metaheuristic using populations, based on the extension, which is an evolutionary algorithm. There are two additional contributions of this thesis. The first is an heuristic allowing to obtain solutions for the subproblems in an individual or aggregated way and the second is a repair operator which can be used by the metaheuristics to repair infeasible solutions and, eventually, generate missing subproblem solutions needed. The thesis includes the description and results from an extensive set of computational tests. Multiple configurations of the column generation with three decomposition models are tested to assess the best configuration to use in the generation of the search space for the metaheuristic. Additional tests compare distinct single-solution metaheuristics and our basic evolutionary algorithm in the search for integer solutions in the search space obtained by the column generation. A final set of tests compares the results of our final algorithm (with the best column generation configuration and the evolutionary algorithm using the repair operator) and the solutions obtained by solving the problem represented by the integer programming model with a commercial solver.Programa de Apoio à Formação Avançada de Docentes do Ensino Superior Politécnico (PROTEC), SFRH/PROTEC/67405/201