Learning to Handle Complex Constraints for Vehicle Routing Problems

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Bi, Jieyi, Ma, Yining, Zhou, Jianan, Song, Wen, Cao, Zhiguang, Wu, Yaoxin, Zhang, Jie
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Bi, Jieyi
Ma, Yining
Zhou, Jianan
Song, Wen
Cao, Zhiguang
Wu, Yaoxin
Zhang, Jie
author_facet Bi, Jieyi
Ma, Yining
Zhou, Jianan
Song, Wen
Cao, Zhiguang
Wu, Yaoxin
Zhang, Jie
contents Vehicle Routing Problems (VRPs) can model many real-world scenarios and often involve complex constraints. While recent neural methods excel in constructing solutions based on feasibility masking, they struggle with handling complex constraints, especially when obtaining the masking itself is NP-hard. In this paper, we propose a novel Proactive Infeasibility Prevention (PIP) framework to advance the capabilities of neural methods towards more complex VRPs. Our PIP integrates the Lagrangian multiplier as a basis to enhance constraint awareness and introduces preventative infeasibility masking to proactively steer the solution construction process. Moreover, we present PIP-D, which employs an auxiliary decoder and two adaptive strategies to learn and predict these tailored masks, potentially enhancing performance while significantly reducing computational costs during training. To verify our PIP designs, we conduct extensive experiments on the highly challenging Traveling Salesman Problem with Time Window (TSPTW), and TSP with Draft Limit (TSPDL) variants under different constraint hardness levels. Notably, our PIP is generic to boost many neural methods, and exhibits both a significant reduction in infeasible rate and a substantial improvement in solution quality.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2410_21066
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Learning to Handle Complex Constraints for Vehicle Routing Problems
Bi, Jieyi
Ma, Yining
Zhou, Jianan
Song, Wen
Cao, Zhiguang
Wu, Yaoxin
Zhang, Jie
Artificial Intelligence
Machine Learning
Vehicle Routing Problems (VRPs) can model many real-world scenarios and often involve complex constraints. While recent neural methods excel in constructing solutions based on feasibility masking, they struggle with handling complex constraints, especially when obtaining the masking itself is NP-hard. In this paper, we propose a novel Proactive Infeasibility Prevention (PIP) framework to advance the capabilities of neural methods towards more complex VRPs. Our PIP integrates the Lagrangian multiplier as a basis to enhance constraint awareness and introduces preventative infeasibility masking to proactively steer the solution construction process. Moreover, we present PIP-D, which employs an auxiliary decoder and two adaptive strategies to learn and predict these tailored masks, potentially enhancing performance while significantly reducing computational costs during training. To verify our PIP designs, we conduct extensive experiments on the highly challenging Traveling Salesman Problem with Time Window (TSPTW), and TSP with Draft Limit (TSPDL) variants under different constraint hardness levels. Notably, our PIP is generic to boost many neural methods, and exhibits both a significant reduction in infeasible rate and a substantial improvement in solution quality.
title Learning to Handle Complex Constraints for Vehicle Routing Problems
topic Artificial Intelligence
Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2410.21066