arXiv Machine Learning

Leader Reward for POMO-Based Neural Combinatorial Optimization

arXiv:2405. 13947v2 Announce Type: replace Abstract: Deep neural networks based on reinforcement learning (RL) for solving combinatorial optimization (CO) problems are developing rapidly and have shown a tendency to approach or even outperform traditional solvers.

arXiv AI
Aug 25

Memory-Enhanced Neural Solvers for Routing Problems

The paper introduces MEMENTO, a memory‑enhanced neural solver that improves routing problem solutions by using online data from repeated attempts to adjust action distributions during inference. It targets NP‑hard routing tasks such as the Traveling Salesman and Capacitated Vehicle Routing problems, outperforming existing tree‑search and policy‑gradient fine‑tuning methods. MEMENTO demonstrates strong scalability and data efficiency, achieving state‑of‑the‑art results on 11 of 12 evaluated tasks and enabling zero‑shot integration with diversity‑based solvers.

By Felix Chalumeau, Refiloe Shabe, Noah De Nicola, Arnu Pretorius, Thomas D. Barrett, Nathan Grinsztajn
arXiv AI
Sep 2

Reinforcement Learning Enhanced LLM Agents for Complex Vehicle Routing Problems

The paper introduces Reinforcement Learning Enhanced LLM Agents (RLEA), a multi‑agent framework that automates the modeling of complex Vehicle Routing Problems (VRPs). RLEA employs a lightweight neural Planner trained with Soft Q‑learning to coordinate LLM‑based agents, and incorporates an evolutionary memory module and retrieval‑augmented generation to leverage experience and external solver knowledge. Experiments on 48 VRP variants show that RLEA outperforms the prior state‑of‑the‑art method, achieving a 16.67% higher success rate and significantly reducing runtime errors.

By Yi Chen, Zikang Yu, Jiahai Wang, Jinbiao Chen, Jianpeng Zhou, Zizhen Zhang
arXiv AI
Jun 3

ASAP: Exploiting the Satisficing Generalization Edge in Neural Combinatorial Optimization

arXiv:2501. 17377v4 Announce Type: replace-cross Abstract: Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) has emerged as a promising approach for solving Combinatorial Optimization (CO) problems, such as the 3D Bin Packing Problem (3D-BPP), Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP), or Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP), but these neural solvers often exhibit brittleness when facing distribution shifts.

By Han Fang, Paul Weng, Yutong Ban
arXiv Machine Learning
Aug 5

Beyond Solving: Prescriptive Probing for Neural Routing Solvers

arXiv:2602. 07216v2 Announce Type: replace Abstract: Neural combinatorial optimization (NCO) trains fast heuristics for routing problems, but planners often need more than a single solve: they ask which stop to drop, which transition to preserve, or which subset of stops to remove if a route is infeasible.

By Reuben Narad, L\'eonard Boussioux, Michael Wagner
arXiv AI
Sep 21

Collab-Solver: Collaborative Solving Policy Learning for Mixed-Integer Linear Programming

Collab‑Solver introduces a multi‑agent policy learning framework for mixed‑integer linear programming (MILP) that enables collaborative optimization of multiple solver modules. By modeling the interaction between cut selection and branching as a Stackelberg game, the approach employs a two‑phase learning paradigm—data‑communicated policy pretraining followed by coordinated policy refinement. Experiments on synthetic and large‑scale real‑world MILP datasets show that the jointly learned policies markedly improve solving performance and generalize well across diverse instance sets.

By Siyuan Li, Yifan Yu, Zhihao Zhang, Mengjing Chen, Fangzhou Zhu, Tao Zhong, Peng Liu, Jianye Hao