Location via proxy:   [ UP ]  
[Report a bug]   [Manage cookies]                
skip to main content
10.1145/2330163.2330222acmconferencesArticle/Chapter ViewAbstractPublication PagesgeccoConference Proceedingsconference-collections
research-article

Challenging heuristics: evolving binary constraint satisfaction problems

Published: 07 July 2012 Publication History

Abstract

In computer science it is a common practice to evaluate the performance of algorithms using a set of benchmark or randomly generated instances. However, following that approach, the weaknesses of the algorithms may not be exposed. This work is the first phase of research project on coevolution of solutions methods versus problem instances. The goal of study is to generate a method to find difficult to solve problem instances capable of challenging the solution methods or algorithms under analysis, helping to discover opportunities for improvement. An evolutionary model is proposed to find hard binary constraint satisfaction problem instances for different variable ordering heuristics. We characterize the search space by generating random instances with different values for the constraint density and tightness. For all the heuristics, the most difficult problems are located in the same region of the space near to the phase transition. However, there are certain regions of the search space where a heuristic dominates the others, especially where the problems are solvable. Finally, we compare the hardest instances found during the search space exploration with the outcome instances of the evolutionary model. The results show that evolved instances are harder to solve than the ones randomly generated.

References

[1]
D. Achlioptas, C. Gomes, H. Kautz, and B. Selman. Generating satisfiable problem instances. In Proceedings of AAAI'00, pages 256--301, 2000.
[2]
D. Achlioptas, H. Jia, and C. Moore. Hiding satisfying assignments: Two are better than one. In Proceedings of AAAI'04, pages 131--136, 2004.
[3]
D. Achlioptas, M. S. O. Molloy, L. M. Kirousis, Y. C. Stamatiou, E. Kranakis, and D. Krizanc. Random constraint satisfaction: A more accurate picture. Constraints, 6(4):329--344, 2001.
[4]
P. Cheeseman, B. Kanefsky, and W. M. Taylor. Where the really hard problems are. In Proceedings of International Joint Conferences on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI'91), pages 331--337, 1991.
[5]
J. Culberson. Hidden solutions, tell-tales, heuristics and anti-heuristics. In Workshop on Empirical Methods in Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI'01), 2001.
[6]
Y. Fan and J. Shen. On the phase transitions of random k-constraint satisfaction problems. Artif. Intell., 175(3-4):914--927, mar 2011.
[7]
I. Gent, E. MacIntyre, P. Prosser, B. Smith, and T. Walsh. An empirical study of dynamic variable ordering heuristics for the constraint satisfaction problem. In Proceedings of the International Conference on Principles and Practice of Constraint Programming (CP'96), pages 179--193, 1996.
[8]
I. P. Gent, P. Prosser, and T. Walsh. The constrainedness of search. In Proceedings of AAAI'96, pages 246--252, 1999.
[9]
E. MacIntyre, P. Prosser, B. M. Smith, and T. Walsh. Random constraint satisfaction: Theory meets practice. In Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Principles and Practice of Constraint Programming (CP 98), pages 325--339. Springer, 1998.
[10]
M. Mouhoub and B. Jafari. Heuristic techniques for variable and value ordering in csps. In Proceedings of the 13th annual conference on Genetic and evolutionary computation, GECCO '11, pages 457--464, New York, NY, USA, 2011. ACM.
[11]
P. Prosser. Hybrid algorithms for the constraint satisfaction problem. Computational Intelligence, 9:268--299, 1993.
[12]
P. Prosser. Binary constraint satisfaction problems: Some are harder than others. In Proceedings of the European Conference in Artificial Intelligence, pages 95--99, 1994.
[13]
P. Prosser. An empirical study of phase transitions in binary constraint satisfaction problems. Artificial Intelligence, 81(1-2):81--109, 1996. Frontiers in Problem Solving: Phase Transitions and Complexity.
[14]
I. Rish and D. Frost. Statistical analysis of backtracking on inconsistent CSPs. In G. Smolka, editor, Principles and Practice of Constraint Programming (CP'97), volume 1330 of Lecture Notes in Computer Science, pages 150--162. Springer, 1997.
[15]
F. Rossi, C. Petrie, and V. Dhar. On the equivalence of constraint satisfaction problems. In Proceedings of the 9th European Conference on Artificial Intelligence, pages 550--556, 1990.
[16]
B. Selman, D. Mitchell, and H. J. Levesque. Generating hard satisfiability problems. Artificial Intelligence, 81:17--29, 1996.
[17]
Z. shan Li, H. ying Du, S. mei Xing, and F. wei Meng. Value ordering heuristic for solving algorithm based on thehboxAC-4 algorithm. In 2nd International Workshop on Intelligent Systems and Applications (ISA'10), pages 1--4, 2010.
[18]
B. M. Smith. Locating the phase transition in binary constraint satisfaction problems. Artificial Intelligence, 81:155--181, 1996.
[19]
B. M. Smith. Constructing an asymptotic phase transition in random binary constraint satisfaction problems. Theoretical Computer Science, 265:265--283, 2001.
[20]
J. I. van Hemert. Evolving binary constraint satisfaction problem instances that are difficult to solve. In Proceedings of the 2003 IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation (CEC'03), pages 1267--1273. IEEE Press, 2003.
[21]
J. I. van Hemert. Evolving combinatorial problem instances that are difficult to solve. Evolutionary Computation, 14(4):433--462, 2006.
[22]
K. Xu, F. Boussemart, F. Hemery, and C. Lecoutre. Random constraint satisfaction: Easy generation of hard (satisfiable) instances. Artificial Intelligence, 171(8-9):514--534, 2007.
[23]
K. Xu and W. Li. Exact phase transitions in random constraint satisfaction problems. Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research, 12:93--103, 2000.
[24]
K. Xu and W. Li. Many hard examples in exact phase transitions. Theorical Computer Science, 355(3):291--302, 2006.

Cited By

View all
  • (2022)Generative Adversarial Construction of Parallel PortfoliosIEEE Transactions on Cybernetics10.1109/TCYB.2020.298454652:2(784-795)Online publication date: Feb-2022
  • (2019)Instance Generation via Generator InstancesPrinciples and Practice of Constraint Programming10.1007/978-3-030-30048-7_1(3-19)Online publication date: 23-Sep-2019
  • (2018)A Hybrid Genetic - Differential Evolution Algorithm (HybGADE) for a Constrained Sequencing Problem2018 International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Data Processing (IDAP)10.1109/IDAP.2018.8620825(1-6)Online publication date: Sep-2018
  • Show More Cited By

Recommendations

Comments

Information & Contributors

Information

Published In

cover image ACM Conferences
GECCO '12: Proceedings of the 14th annual conference on Genetic and evolutionary computation
July 2012
1396 pages
ISBN:9781450311779
DOI:10.1145/2330163
Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

Sponsors

Publisher

Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 07 July 2012

Permissions

Request permissions for this article.

Check for updates

Author Tags

  1. constraint satisfaction
  2. evolutionary computation
  3. heurisics

Qualifiers

  • Research-article

Conference

GECCO '12
Sponsor:
GECCO '12: Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference
July 7 - 11, 2012
Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA

Acceptance Rates

Overall Acceptance Rate 1,669 of 4,410 submissions, 38%

Contributors

Other Metrics

Bibliometrics & Citations

Bibliometrics

Article Metrics

  • Downloads (Last 12 months)0
  • Downloads (Last 6 weeks)0
Reflects downloads up to 16 Feb 2025

Other Metrics

Citations

Cited By

View all
  • (2022)Generative Adversarial Construction of Parallel PortfoliosIEEE Transactions on Cybernetics10.1109/TCYB.2020.298454652:2(784-795)Online publication date: Feb-2022
  • (2019)Instance Generation via Generator InstancesPrinciples and Practice of Constraint Programming10.1007/978-3-030-30048-7_1(3-19)Online publication date: 23-Sep-2019
  • (2018)A Hybrid Genetic - Differential Evolution Algorithm (HybGADE) for a Constrained Sequencing Problem2018 International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Data Processing (IDAP)10.1109/IDAP.2018.8620825(1-6)Online publication date: Sep-2018
  • (2014)Worst-Case Execution Time Test Generation for Solutions of the Knapsack Problem Using a Genetic AlgorithmBio-Inspired Computing - Theories and Applications10.1007/978-3-662-45049-9_1(1-10)Online publication date: 2014

View Options

Login options

View options

PDF

View or Download as a PDF file.

PDF

eReader

View online with eReader.

eReader

Figures

Tables

Media

Share

Share

Share this Publication link

Share on social media