Leveraging Symbolic Regression to Design Efficient Heuristics for the Traveling Thief Problem

Core Concepts

Symbolic regression is used to learn useful features of near-optimal packing plans, which are then used to design efficient metaheuristic genetic algorithms for the traveling thief problem.

Abstract

The paper presents a novel approach to designing heuristics for the Traveling Thief Problem (TTP), an NP-hard combination of the Traveling Salesman and 0-1 Knapsack problems. The key insights are: Analysis of near-optimal packing plans reveals a smooth, regular relationship between the standardized item profitability ratio (IPR) and the standardized distance to the end of the tour (rDist) of packed items. Symbolic regression is used to discover combinations of IPR and rDist that are important to this relationship. These feature combinations are used to define a family of metaheuristic genetic algorithms, where each individual encodes a boundary line separating packed and unpacked items. Symbolic regression is again used to directly predict the parameter values of the optimal individuals produced by the metaheuristic GA, greatly accelerating the algorithm and stabilizing its performance. Experiments show that the proposed heuristics outperform previous state-of-the-art initialization schemes in terms of both solution quality and computational efficiency.

Stats

The knapsack capacity is determined based on a capacity factor C ∈ {1...10} as W = C/11 * Σ(i=1 to n) Σ(k=0 to m) wik. The renting ratio is calculated as the optimal profit of the KP subproblem divided by the time taken to traverse the linkern tour while collecting the items in that optimal packing.

Quotes

"Symbolic regression is used to learn useful features of near-optimal packing plans, which are then used to design efficient metaheuristic genetic algorithms for the traveling thief problem." "Analysis of near-optimal packing plans reveals a smooth, regular relationship between the standardized item profitability ratio (IPR) and the standardized distance to the end of the tour (rDist) of packed items." "Symbolic regression is again used to directly predict the parameter values of the optimal individuals produced by the metaheuristic GA, greatly accelerating the algorithm and stabilizing its performance."

Key Insights Distilled From

Leveraging Symbolic Regression for Heuristic Design in the Traveling Thief Problem

by Andrew Ni,Le... at arxiv.org 04-22-2024

https://arxiv.org/pdf/2404.12750.pdf

Deeper Inquiries

How could the proposed heuristics be extended to handle dynamic or stochastic TTP instances, where the item weights, profits, or even the tour itself may change over time?

In order to extend the proposed heuristics to handle dynamic or stochastic TTP instances, several adaptations and enhancements could be implemented: Adaptive Parameter Tuning: The heuristics could be designed to dynamically adjust their parameters based on the changing characteristics of the TTP instances. This could involve incorporating feedback mechanisms that update the heuristic parameters in response to the evolving nature of the problem. Online Learning: Implementing online learning techniques would allow the heuristics to continuously update their models based on incoming data. This would enable the heuristics to adapt to changes in the problem instance in real-time. Stochastic Optimization: Introducing stochastic elements into the optimization process would enable the heuristics to handle uncertainty in the problem parameters. Techniques such as stochastic gradient descent or evolutionary strategies could be employed to optimize the heuristic performance under stochastic conditions. Reactive Heuristics: Developing reactive heuristics that can react to changes in the problem instance by dynamically adjusting their strategies. This could involve incorporating mechanisms for exploration and exploitation to balance adaptability and performance. Ensemble Methods: Utilizing ensemble methods to combine multiple heuristics that are specialized for different types of TTP instances. By dynamically selecting and combining these heuristics based on the characteristics of the current instance, the overall performance could be improved.

How might the insights gained from this work on the TTP apply to the design of heuristics for other complex combinatorial optimization problems that involve interacting subproblems?

The insights gained from the work on the Traveling Thief Problem (TTP) can be applied to the design of heuristics for other complex combinatorial optimization problems in the following ways: Feature Engineering: The use of symbolic regression to identify important features and relationships in near-optimal solutions can be generalized to other optimization problems. By understanding the key factors that influence solution quality, heuristics can be designed to focus on these critical aspects. Metaheuristic Design: The approach of using metaheuristic genetic algorithms initialized with near-optimal individuals can be extended to other optimization problems with interacting subproblems. By leveraging insights from symbolic regression to guide the initialization process, heuristics can be tailored to specific problem structures. Adaptive Initialization: The concept of dynamically predicting optimal parameter values based on problem characteristics can be applied to other optimization problems that involve changing parameters or subproblems. By adapting the initialization process to the problem instance, heuristics can improve their performance in diverse scenarios. Ensemble Learning: The idea of evolving multiple heuristics based on different feature sets and selecting the best-performing one can be generalized to ensemble learning approaches for other combinatorial optimization problems. By combining diverse heuristics, the overall robustness and effectiveness of the optimization process can be enhanced.