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Branch-and-Check with Explanations for the Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Windows

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Principles and Practice of Constraint Programming (CP 2017)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNPSE,volume 10416))

Abstract

This paper proposes the framework of branch-and-check with explanations (BCE), a branch-and-check method where combinatorial cuts are found by general-purpose conflict analysis, rather than by specialized separation algorithms. Specifically, the method features a master problem that ignores combinatorial constraints, and a feasibility subproblem that uses propagation to check the feasibility of these constraints and performs conflict analysis to derive nogood cuts. The BCE method also leverages conflict-based branching rules and strengthens cuts in a post-processing step. Experimental results on the Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Windows show that BCE is a potential alternative to branch-and-cut. In particular, BCE dominates branch-and-cut, both in proving optimality and in finding high-quality solutions quickly.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. CSIRO Data61, Eveleigh, NSW, 2015, Australia

    Edward Lam

  2. University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, 3010, Australia

    Edward Lam

  3. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109-2117, USA

    Pascal Van Hentenryck

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  1. Edward Lam
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  2. Pascal Van Hentenryck
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Correspondence to Edward Lam .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

    J. Christopher Beck

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Lam, E., Van Hentenryck, P. (2017). Branch-and-Check with Explanations for the Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Windows. In: Beck, J. (eds) Principles and Practice of Constraint Programming. CP 2017. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 10416. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-66158-2_37

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-66158-2_37

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-66157-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-66158-2

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