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 AI
Sep 12

Probabilistic Focal Search: Accelerating Bounded-Suboptimal Search via Lower-Bound Advancement

Probabilistic Focal Search (PFS) augments traditional Focal Search by probabilistically choosing between the standard heuristic-guided expansion and expanding the minimum‑f node in OPEN. This strategy advances the lower bound, enlarges the FOCAL frontier, and can dramatically reduce node expansions—up to 90% in some benchmarks such as N‑Puzzle and TSP—especially when long f_min plateaus delay useful FOCAL admissions. An anytime variant, APFS, outperforms other tested anytime algorithms on the Generalized Covering TSP, and the same probabilistic scheduler transfers to Dynamic Potential Search as Probabilistic Dynamic Potential Search (PDPS), though its effectiveness varies by domain and bound.

By Minh Vu Duc, Trung Le Huu, H\`a Minh Ho\`ang, Trung Thanh Nguyen, Phuong Khanh Nguyen, Huynh Thi Thanh Binh