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Hauptverfasser: Zhang, Haoting, Chen, Haoxian, Zhan, Donglin, Zhao, Hanyang, Lam, Henry, Tang, Wenpin, Yao, David, Zheng, Zeyu
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2025
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Online-Zugang:https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.00685
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author Zhang, Haoting
Chen, Haoxian
Zhan, Donglin
Zhao, Hanyang
Lam, Henry
Tang, Wenpin
Yao, David
Zheng, Zeyu
author_facet Zhang, Haoting
Chen, Haoxian
Zhan, Donglin
Zhao, Hanyang
Lam, Henry
Tang, Wenpin
Yao, David
Zheng, Zeyu
contents The field of simulation optimization (SO) encompasses various methods developed to optimize complex, expensive-to-sample stochastic systems. Established methods include, but are not limited to, ranking-and-selection for finite alternatives and surrogate-based methods for continuous domains, with broad applications in engineering and operations management. The recent advent of large language models (LLMs) offers a new paradigm for exploiting system structure and automating the strategic selection and composition of these established SO methods into a tailored optimization procedure. This work introduces SOCRATES (Simulation Optimization with Correlated Replicas and Adaptive Trajectory Evaluations), a novel two-stage procedure that leverages LLMs to automate the design of tailored SO algorithms. The first stage constructs an ensemble of digital replicas of the real system. An LLM is employed to implement causal discovery from a textual description of the system, generating a structural `skeleton' that guides the sample-efficient learning of the replicas. In the second stage, this replica ensemble is used as an inexpensive testbed to evaluate a set of baseline SO algorithms. An LLM then acts as a meta-optimizer, analyzing the performance trajectories of these algorithms to iteratively revise and compose a final, hybrid optimization schedule. This schedule is designed to be adaptive, with the ability to be updated during the final execution on the real system when the optimization performance deviates from expectations. By integrating LLM-driven reasoning with LLM-assisted trajectory-aware meta-optimization, SOCRATES creates an effective and sample-efficient solution for complex SO optimization problems.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2511_00685
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle SOCRATES: Simulation Optimization with Correlated Replicas and Adaptive Trajectory Evaluations
Zhang, Haoting
Chen, Haoxian
Zhan, Donglin
Zhao, Hanyang
Lam, Henry
Tang, Wenpin
Yao, David
Zheng, Zeyu
Machine Learning
The field of simulation optimization (SO) encompasses various methods developed to optimize complex, expensive-to-sample stochastic systems. Established methods include, but are not limited to, ranking-and-selection for finite alternatives and surrogate-based methods for continuous domains, with broad applications in engineering and operations management. The recent advent of large language models (LLMs) offers a new paradigm for exploiting system structure and automating the strategic selection and composition of these established SO methods into a tailored optimization procedure. This work introduces SOCRATES (Simulation Optimization with Correlated Replicas and Adaptive Trajectory Evaluations), a novel two-stage procedure that leverages LLMs to automate the design of tailored SO algorithms. The first stage constructs an ensemble of digital replicas of the real system. An LLM is employed to implement causal discovery from a textual description of the system, generating a structural `skeleton' that guides the sample-efficient learning of the replicas. In the second stage, this replica ensemble is used as an inexpensive testbed to evaluate a set of baseline SO algorithms. An LLM then acts as a meta-optimizer, analyzing the performance trajectories of these algorithms to iteratively revise and compose a final, hybrid optimization schedule. This schedule is designed to be adaptive, with the ability to be updated during the final execution on the real system when the optimization performance deviates from expectations. By integrating LLM-driven reasoning with LLM-assisted trajectory-aware meta-optimization, SOCRATES creates an effective and sample-efficient solution for complex SO optimization problems.
title SOCRATES: Simulation Optimization with Correlated Replicas and Adaptive Trajectory Evaluations
topic Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.00685