274 research outputs found
Distributed Nested Rollout Policy for Same Game
Nested Rollout Policy Adaptation (NRPA) is a Monte Carlo search heuristic for puzzles and other optimization problems. It achieves state-of-the-art performance on several games including SameGame. In this paper, we design several parallel and distributed NRPA-based search techniques, and we provide a number of experimental insights about their execution. Finally, we use our best implementation to discover 15 better scores for 20 standard SameGame boards
A Survey of Monte Carlo Tree Search Methods
Monte Carlo tree search (MCTS) is a recently proposed search method that combines the precision of tree search with the generality of random sampling. It has received considerable interest due to its spectacular success in the difficult problem of computer Go, but has also proved beneficial in a range of other domains. This paper is a survey of the literature to date, intended to provide a snapshot of the state of the art after the first five years of MCTS research. We outline the core algorithm's derivation, impart some structure on the many variations and enhancements that have been proposed, and summarize the results from the key game and nongame domains to which MCTS methods have been applied. A number of open research questions indicate that the field is ripe for future work
Pilot, Rollout and Monte Carlo Tree Search Methods for Job Shop Scheduling
Greedy heuristics may be attuned by looking ahead for each possible choice,
in an approach called the rollout or Pilot method. These methods may be seen as
meta-heuristics that can enhance (any) heuristic solution, by repetitively
modifying a master solution: similarly to what is done in game tree search,
better choices are identified using lookahead, based on solutions obtained by
repeatedly using a greedy heuristic. This paper first illustrates how the Pilot
method improves upon some simple well known dispatch heuristics for the
job-shop scheduling problem. The Pilot method is then shown to be a special
case of the more recent Monte Carlo Tree Search (MCTS) methods: Unlike the
Pilot method, MCTS methods use random completion of partial solutions to
identify promising branches of the tree. The Pilot method and a simple version
of MCTS, using the -greedy exploration paradigms, are then
compared within the same framework, consisting of 300 scheduling problems of
varying sizes with fixed-budget of rollouts. Results demonstrate that MCTS
reaches better or same results as the Pilot methods in this context.Comment: Learning and Intelligent OptimizatioN (LION'6) 7219 (2012
Adaptive Monte Carlo Search for Conjecture Refutation in Graph Theory
Graph theory is an interdisciplinary field of study that has various
applications in mathematical modeling and computer science. Research in graph
theory depends on the creation of not only theorems but also conjectures.
Conjecture-refuting algorithms attempt to refute conjectures by searching for
counterexamples to those conjectures, often by maximizing certain score
functions on graphs. This study proposes a novel conjecture-refuting algorithm,
referred to as the adaptive Monte Carlo search (AMCS) algorithm, obtained by
modifying the Monte Carlo tree search algorithm. Evaluated based on its success
in finding counterexamples to several graph theory conjectures, AMCS
outperforms existing conjecture-refuting algorithms. The algorithm is further
utilized to refute six open conjectures, two of which were chemical graph
theory conjectures formulated by Liu et al. in 2021 and four of which were
formulated by the AutoGraphiX computer system in 2006. Finally, four of the
open conjectures are strongly refuted by generalizing the counterexamples
obtained by AMCS to produce a family of counterexamples. It is expected that
the algorithm can help researchers test graph-theoretic conjectures more
effectively.Comment: 27 pages, 11 figures, 3 tables; Milo Roucairol pointed out that both
of our papers used an incorrect formula for the harmonic of a graph. The
revised Conjecture 4 was able to be refuted. This paper and the GitHub
repository have been updated accordingl
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