On Size and Hardness Generalization in Unsupervised Learning for the Travelling Salesman Problem

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Min, Yimeng, Gomes, Carla P.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Min, Yimeng
Gomes, Carla P.
author_facet Min, Yimeng
Gomes, Carla P.
contents We study the generalization capability of Unsupervised Learning in solving the Travelling Salesman Problem (TSP). We use a Graph Neural Network (GNN) trained with a surrogate loss function to generate an embedding for each node. We use these embeddings to construct a heat map that indicates the likelihood of each edge being part of the optimal route. We then apply local search to generate our final predictions. Our investigation explores how different training instance sizes, embedding dimensions, and distributions influence the outcomes of Unsupervised Learning methods. Our results show that training with larger instance sizes and increasing embedding dimensions can build a more effective representation, enhancing the model's ability to solve TSP. Furthermore, in evaluating generalization across different distributions, we first determine the hardness of various distributions and explore how different hardnesses affect the final results. Our findings suggest that models trained on harder instances exhibit better generalization capabilities, highlighting the importance of selecting appropriate training instances in solving TSP using Unsupervised Learning.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2403_20212
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle On Size and Hardness Generalization in Unsupervised Learning for the Travelling Salesman Problem
Min, Yimeng
Gomes, Carla P.
Artificial Intelligence
Machine Learning
We study the generalization capability of Unsupervised Learning in solving the Travelling Salesman Problem (TSP). We use a Graph Neural Network (GNN) trained with a surrogate loss function to generate an embedding for each node. We use these embeddings to construct a heat map that indicates the likelihood of each edge being part of the optimal route. We then apply local search to generate our final predictions. Our investigation explores how different training instance sizes, embedding dimensions, and distributions influence the outcomes of Unsupervised Learning methods. Our results show that training with larger instance sizes and increasing embedding dimensions can build a more effective representation, enhancing the model's ability to solve TSP. Furthermore, in evaluating generalization across different distributions, we first determine the hardness of various distributions and explore how different hardnesses affect the final results. Our findings suggest that models trained on harder instances exhibit better generalization capabilities, highlighting the importance of selecting appropriate training instances in solving TSP using Unsupervised Learning.
title On Size and Hardness Generalization in Unsupervised Learning for the Travelling Salesman Problem
topic Artificial Intelligence
Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2403.20212