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A Re-characterization of Hyper-Heuristics

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Recent Developments in Metaheuristics

Part of the book series: Operations Research/Computer Science Interfaces Series ((ORCS,volume 62))

Abstract

Hyper-heuristics are an optimization methodology which ‘search the space of heuristics’ rather than directly searching the space of the underlying candidate-solution representation. Hyper-heuristic search has traditionally been divided into two layers: a lower problem-domain layer (where domain-specific heuristics are applied) and an upper hyper-heuristic layer, where heuristics are selected or generated. The interface between the two layers is commonly termed the “domain barrier”. Historically this interface has been defined to be highly restrictive, in the belief that this is required for generality. We argue that this prevailing conception of domain barrier is so limiting as to defeat the original motivation for hyper-heuristics. We show how it is possible to make use of domain knowledge without loss of generality and describe generalized hyper-heuristics which can incorporate arbitrary domain knowledge.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    And to a less overt degree implied in early work on hyper-heuristics (e.g. [8]).

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Computer Science, University of York, York, UK

    Jerry Swan

  2. Computer Science, KU Leuven, Kortrijk, Belgium

    Patrick De Causmaecker

  3. Computer Science, University of Stirling, Stirling, UK

    Simon Martin

  4. School of Computer Science, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK

    Ender Özcan

Authors
  1. Jerry Swan
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jerry Swan .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Industrial Systems Optimization, University of Technology of Troyes, Troyes, France

    Lionel Amodeo

  2. INRIA Laboratory, CRISTAL/CNRS, University of Lille 1, Villeneuve d’Ascq, France

    El-Ghazali Talbi

  3. Laboratory of Industrial Systems Optimization, University of Technology of Troyes, Troyes, France

    Farouk Yalaoui

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Swan, J., De Causmaecker, P., Martin, S., Özcan, E. (2018). A Re-characterization of Hyper-Heuristics. In: Amodeo, L., Talbi, EG., Yalaoui, F. (eds) Recent Developments in Metaheuristics. Operations Research/Computer Science Interfaces Series, vol 62. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-58253-5_5

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