论文标题
组合优化竞赛(ML4CO)的机器学习:结果和见解
The Machine Learning for Combinatorial Optimization Competition (ML4CO): Results and Insights
论文作者
论文摘要
组合优化是运营研究和计算机科学领域的一个良好领域。直到最近,它的方法一直集中在孤立地解决问题实例,而忽略了它们通常源于实践中的相关数据分布。但是,近年来,人们对使用机器学习作为解决组合问题的新方法的兴趣激增,无论是直接作为求解器还是通过增强确切的求解器。基于这种情况,ML4CO旨在通过更换关键的启发式组件来改善最先进的组合优化求解器。比赛具有三个具有挑战性的任务:找到最佳的可行解决方案,生产最紧张的最佳证书,并提供适当的求解器配置。考虑了三个现实的数据集:平衡项目放置,工作负载分配和海上库存路由。最后一个数据集对参赛者保持了匿名。
Combinatorial optimization is a well-established area in operations research and computer science. Until recently, its methods have focused on solving problem instances in isolation, ignoring that they often stem from related data distributions in practice. However, recent years have seen a surge of interest in using machine learning as a new approach for solving combinatorial problems, either directly as solvers or by enhancing exact solvers. Based on this context, the ML4CO aims at improving state-of-the-art combinatorial optimization solvers by replacing key heuristic components. The competition featured three challenging tasks: finding the best feasible solution, producing the tightest optimality certificate, and giving an appropriate solver configuration. Three realistic datasets were considered: balanced item placement, workload apportionment, and maritime inventory routing. This last dataset was kept anonymous for the contestants.