Hyper-heuristic Operator Selection and Acceptance Criteria

Abstract

Earlier research has shown that an adaptive hyper-heuristic can be a successful approach to solving combinatorial optimisation problems. By using a pairing of an operator (low-level heuristic) selection vector and a solution acceptance criterion, an adaptive hyper-heuristic can manage development of a “good” solution within an unseen low-level problem domain in a commercially realistic computational time. However not all selection vectors and solution acceptance criteria pairings deliver competitive results when faced with differing problem instance features and computational time limits. We evaluate pairings of six different operator selection vectors and eight solution acceptance criteria, and monitor the performance of the adaptive hyper-heuristic when applying each pairing to a set of Capacitated Vehicle Routing Problem instances of the same size but with different features. The results show that a few pairings of operator selection vector and acceptance criterion perform consistently well, while others require a longer computational time to deliver competitive results. We also investigate some of the features of a problem instance that may influence the performance of the selection vector and acceptance criterion pairings.