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:2503. 03137v3 Announce Type: replace Abstract: Constructive neural combinatorial optimization (NCO) offers a promising paradigm for solving vehicle routing problems (VRPs) by directly learning to construct approximate optimal solutions, thereby reducing reliance on expert knowledge for algorithm design.
By Changliang Zhou, Xi Lin, Zhenkun Wang, Qingfu Zhang
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
SynthCharge is a parametric generator that creates diverse, feasibility‑screened instances of the electric vehicle routing problem with time windows (EVRPTW). It produces instances ranging from 5 to 100 customers (up to 500 in theory) with adaptive energy capacity scaling and range‑aware charging station placement, filtering out unsolvable cases via a fast feasibility screening process. This dynamic benchmarking infrastructure enables systematic evaluation of learning‑based routing and data‑driven approaches.
By Mertcan Daysalilar, Fuat Uyguroglu, Gabriel Nicolosi, Adam Meyers
arXiv:2509. 23413v3 Announce Type: replace Abstract: Multi-task neural routing solvers have emerged as a promising paradigm for their ability to solve multiple vehicle routing problems (VRPs) using a single model.
By Changliang Zhou, Canhong Yu, Shunyu Yao, Xi Lin, Zhenkun Wang, Yu Zhou, Qingfu Zhang
The paper introduces a deep architecture that jointly optimizes cost functions and a route-ranking model to accommodate diverse user preferences in route planning. It first generates a complete set of Pareto‑optimal routes using a multi‑objective Dijkstra algorithm, then employs a neural network that emulates shortest‑path search and ranking in an end‑to‑end differentiable framework. A novel loss function treats route preference as a constrained optimization problem, allowing a single objective to be optimized while other attributes remain constrained, and experiments on real‑world data show significant improvements over existing methods.
By Rui Zhao, Chao Chen, Longfei Xu, Chenguang Ji, Hengbin Cui, Kaikui Liu, Xiaolong Li