用大模型同时优化启发式算法的性能、效率与可扩展性,自动生成多类优质解。
Multi-objective Evolution of Heuristic Using Large Language Model
- 将启发式搜索建模为多目标优化问题,利用大模型零样本生成多样化解
- 在装箱和旅行商问题中实现性能相当或更优,效率提升最高达10倍
- 发现新型启发式设计思路,适合需要多目标权衡的工程优化场景
启发式算法广泛应用于各类搜索与优化问题。传统启发式设计依赖繁琐的人工调参与领域知识。近期研究将大语言模型(LLMs)引入自动启发式搜索,利用其语言与编程能力。然而现有工作仅以目标问题的最优性能为唯一目标,忽视了效率与可扩展性等实际关键指标。为此,我们提出将启发式搜索建模为多目标优化问题,引入除最优性能外的实用标准。由于搜索空间复杂,传统多目标优化方法难以有效处理基于LLM的启发式搜索。我们提出首个基于大模型的多目标启发式搜索框架——多目标启发式演化(MEoH),以零样本方式生成满足多种设计标准的非支配解集。设计了新的支配-差异机制,兼顾代码空间的差异性与目标空间的支配关系,实现高效种群管理与选择。在两个经典组合优化问题——在线装箱问题(BPP)与旅行商问题(TSP)上验证了该方法。结果表明,单次运行即可自动生成多种优秀启发式算法,提供比现有方法更丰富的权衡选项。在保持竞争性或更优性能的同时,效率最高提升10倍。此外,多目标搜索还带来了启发式设计的新洞察,发现了多样化的高效启发式策略。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
Heuristics are commonly used to tackle various search and optimization problems. Design heuristics usually require tedious manual crafting with domain knowledge. Recent works have incorporated Large Language Models (LLMs) into automatic heuristic search, leveraging their powerful language and coding capacity. However, existing research focuses on the optimal performance on the target problem as the sole objective, neglecting other criteria such as efficiency and scalability, which are vital in practice. To tackle this challenge, we propose to model the heuristic search as a multi-objective optimization problem and consider introducing additional practical criteria beyond optimal performance. Due to the complexity of the search space, conventional multi-objective optimization methods struggle to effectively handle LLM-based multi-objective heuristic search. We propose the first LLM-based multi-objective heuristic search framework, Multi-objective Evolution of Heuristic (MEoH), which integrates LLMs in a zero-shot manner to generate a non-dominated set of heuristics to meet multiple design criteria. We design a new dominance-dissimilarity mechanism for effective population management and selection, which incorporates both code dissimilarity in the search space and dominance in the objective space. MEoH is demonstrated in two well-known combinatorial optimization problems: the online Bin Packing Problem (BPP) and the Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP). The results indicate that a variety of elite heuristics are automatically generated in a single run, offering more trade-off options than the existing methods. It successfully achieves competitive or superior performance while improving efficiency up to 10 times. Moreover, we also observe that the multi-objective search introduces novel insights into heuristic design and leads to the discovery of diverse heuristics.
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