primal heuristic

PaNGEA: Parallel Node Generation and Exploration Algorithm

Categories (Mixed) Integer Linear Programming, Integer Programming Tags ,

Primal heuristics for finding high-quality feasible solutions are an important component in mixed-integer optimization (MIO) solvers. Recent advances in GPU-accelerated optimization algorithms show the potential of GPU acceleration for continuous optimization. In this paper, we introduce the Parallel Node Generation and Exploration Algorithm (PaNGEA), a GPU-friendly MIO primal heuristic. PaNGEA explores restricted subproblems by combining … Read more

Optimal Planning for the Electrification of Bus Fleets in Public Transit Systems

Categories Applications - OR and Management Sciences, Integer Programming, Transportation Tags , , ,

Electric vehicles (EV) pave a promising way towards low-carbon transportation, but the transition to all EV fleets creates new challenges for the public transportation sector. Despite increasing adoption of electric buses, the main challenges presented by the battery electric bus technology include the lack of charging facilities, the reduced operating capacity per battery charge compared … Read more

Revisiting local branching with a machine learning lens

Categories (Mixed) Integer Linear Programming, 0-1 Programming, Integer Programming Tags , ,

Finding high-quality solutions to mixed-integer linear programming problems (MILPs) is of great importance for many practical applications. In this respect, the refinement heuristic local branching (LB) has been proposed to produce improving solutions and has been highly influential for the development of local search methods in MILP. The algorithm iteratively explores a sequence of solution … Read more

Computing Feasible Points for Binary MINLPs with MPECs

Categories (Mixed) Integer Nonlinear Programming, Complementarity and Variational Inequalities, Integer Programming Tags , , ,

Nonconvex mixed-binary nonlinear optimization problems frequently appear in practice and are typically extremely hard to solve. In this paper we discuss a class of primal heuristics that are based on a reformulation of the problem as a mathematical program with equilibrium constraints. We then use different regularization schemes for this class of problems and use … Read more

A New Approach to the Feasibility Pump in Mixed Integer Programming

Categories (Mixed) Integer Linear Programming Tags , , ,

The feasibility pump is a recent, highly successful heuristic for general mixed integer linear programming problems. We show that the feasibility pump heuristic can be interpreted as a discrete version of the proximal point algorithm. In doing so, we extend and generalize some of the fundamental results in this area to provide new supporting theory. … Read more

Boosting the Feasibility Pump

Categories (Mixed) Integer Linear Programming Tags , , , ,

The Feasibility Pump (FP) has proved to be an effective method for finding feasible solutions to mixed integer programming problems. FP iterates between a rounding procedure and a projection procedure, which together provide a sequence of points alternating between LP feasible but fractional solutions, and integer but LP relaxed infeasible solutions. The process attempts to … Read more