Adaptive automated construction of hybrid heuristics for exam timetabling and graph colouring problems

Rong Qu, Edmund K. Burke, Barry McCollum
2009 European Journal of Operational Research  
In this paper we present a random iterative graph based hyper-heuristic to produce a collection of heuristic sequences that consist of different graph colouring heuristics to construct solutions of different quality. These heuristic sequences can be seen as dynamic hybridisations of different heuristics to construct solutions step by step. Based on these sequences, we analyse the way in which graph colouring heuristics are automatically hybridised. This, to our knowledge, represents a new
more » ... ion in hyper-heuristic research. It is observed that spending the effort on hybridising Largest Weighted Degree with Saturation Degree at the early stage of solution construction tends to generate good quality solutions. Based on these observations, an iterative hybrid approach is developed to adaptively hybridise these two graph colouring heuristics at different stages of solution construction. The overall aim here is to automate the heuristic design process, which draws upon an emerging research theme which is concerned with developing computer methods to design and adapt heuristics automatically. Experimental results on benchmark exam timetabling and graph colouring problems demonstrate the effectiveness and generality of this adaptive hybrid approach compared with previous methods on automatically generating and adapting heuristics. Indeed, we also show that the approach is competitive with the state of the art human produced methods. 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Abstract. In this paper we present a random iterative graph based hyper-heuristic to produce a collection of heuristic sequences that consist of different graph colouring heuristics to construct solutions of different quality. These heuristic sequences can be seen as dynamic hybridisations of different heuristics to construct solutions step by step. Based on these sequences, we analyse the way in which graph colouring heuristics are automatically hybridised. This, to our knowledge, represents a new direction in hyper-heuristic research. It is observed that spending the effort on hybridising Largest Weighted Degree with Saturation Degree at the early stage of solution construction tends to generate good quality solutions. Based on these observations, an iterative hybrid approach is developed to adaptively hybridise these two graph colouring heuristics at different stages of solution construction. The overall aim here is to automate the heuristic design process, which draws upon an emerging research theme which is concerned with developing computer methods to design and adapt heuristics automatically. Experimental results on benchmark exam timetabling and graph colouring problems demonstrate the effectiveness and generality of this adaptive hybrid approach compared with previous methods on automatically generating and adapting heuristics. Indeed, we also show that the approach is competitive with the state of the art human produced methods.
doi:10.1016/j.ejor.2008.10.001 fatcat:25g7viz3kndjtkib3mfye5hvnq