An Exploration-Exploitation Compromise-Based Adaptive Operator Selection for Local Search

This paper deals with the adaptive selection of operators in the context of local search (LS). In evolutionary algorithms, diversity is a key concept. We consider a related idea: the similarity between the candidate solution and the solutions in the search trajectory. This notion, together with the solution quality, is used to evaluate the performance of each operator. A new utility measure for LS operators, evaluating relative distances between the operators, is introduced. It is compared with an existing measure based on the Pareto dominance relationship using some basic selection schemes. An adaptive version of the algorithm is also examined. The proposed methods are tested on the Quadratic Assignment Problem and Asymmetric Traveling Salesman Problem.