A Hyper-Heuristic Classifier for One Dimensional Bin Packing Problems: Improving Classification Accuracy by Attribute Evolution

A hyper-heuristic for the one dimensional bin packing problem is presented that uses an Evolutionary Algorithm (EA) to evolve a set of attributes that characterise a problem instance. The EA evolves divisions of variable quantity and dimension that represent ranges of a bin's capacity and are used to train a k-nearest neighbour algorithm. Once trained the classifier selects a single deterministic heuristic to solve each one of a large set of unseen problem instances. The evolved classifier is shown to achieve results significantly better than are obtained by any of the constituent heuristics when used in isolation.

[1]  Graham Kendall,et al.  A Classification of Hyper-heuristic Approaches , 2010 .

[2]  Ian H. Witten,et al.  The WEKA data mining software: an update , 2009, SKDD.

[3]  Paolo Toth,et al.  Lower bounds and reduction procedures for the bin packing problem , 1990, Discret. Appl. Math..

[4]  F. Glover,et al.  Handbook of Metaheuristics , 2019, International Series in Operations Research & Management Science.

[5]  Gerhard Wäscher,et al.  The bin-packing problem: A problem generator and some numerical experiments with FFD packing and MTP , 1997 .

[6]  Matthias Fuchs,et al.  High Performance ATP Systems by Combining Several AI Methods , 1997, IJCAI.

[7]  Peter Ross,et al.  Hyper-heuristics: Learning To Combine Simple Heuristics In Bin-packing Problems , 2002, GECCO.

[8]  Michel Gendreau,et al.  Hyper-heuristics: a survey of the state of the art , 2013, J. Oper. Res. Soc..

[9]  Edmund K. Burke,et al.  Practice and Theory of Automated Timetabling III , 2001, Lecture Notes in Computer Science.

[10]  Armin Scholl,et al.  Bison: A fast hybrid procedure for exactly solving the one-dimensional bin packing problem , 1997, Comput. Oper. Res..

[11]  Graham Kendall,et al.  A Hyperheuristic Approach to Scheduling a Sales Summit , 2000, PATAT.

[12]  Graham Kendall,et al.  Hyper-Heuristics: An Emerging Direction in Modern Search Technology , 2003, Handbook of Metaheuristics.

[13]  David S. Johnson,et al.  Computers and Intractability: A Guide to the Theory of NP-Completeness , 1978 .

[14]  Dr. Alex A. Freitas.  Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery with Evolutionary Algorithms , 2002, Natural Computing Series.

[15]  Ian P. Gent.  Heuristic Solution of Open Bin Packing Problems , 1998, J. Heuristics.

[16]  Emanuel Falkenauer,et al.  A hybrid grouping genetic algorithm for bin packing , 1996, J. Heuristics.

[17]  Graham Kendall,et al.  Automating the Packing Heuristic Design Process with Genetic Programming , 2012, Evolutionary Computation.