TabuSearch:Fundamentals

Department of Biomedical, Human Factors, & Industrial

Scenario#1:
Youareplayingfetchwithyourdog
Challenge:
Whydoeshe/shenotfindtheballifyou
throwitadifferentdirection?
Department of Biomedical, Human Factors, & Industrial

Scenario#2:
Youhavemisplacedyourcarkeys.
Challenge:
Howmightyougoaboutlocatingthem?
Department of Biomedical, Human Factors, & Industrial

KeyConceptsofScenario
Avoidselfdefeatingactions
Keepamemoryofsearchexperience
Thoroughlysearchpromisingareas
Examinenewsearchareasifnecessary
Learnfromthesearch

Department of Biomedical, Human Factors, & Industrial

Background
AccordingtoFredGlover,thesewereconcepts
heuncovered
ArosefromanAIprojectcourseasastudent
Tryingtogetthecomputertoemulate(human)
problemsolving
Hisscenarioinvolvedfellowstudentssolvingan
optimizationproblem
Foundtheyfollowedafairlysystematicapproach

Department of Biomedical, Human Factors, & Industrial

MotivationforTabuSearch

Escaping Trap of Local Optimality

Department of Biomedical, Human Factors, & Industrial

TabuSearchAnAbstract
AMetaHeuristic
Canbeusedtoguidesubordinatemethods
Employsadaptivememoryfunctions
Avoidrepeatsolutionsusingatabulist
Intensifiesthesearchinlocalregions
Employsaresponsiveexplorationfunction
Diversifiestonewareasofsearchspace
Department of Biomedical, Human Factors, & Industrial

WhyMemory
Memorylesssearches
Geneticalgorithms
Simulatedannealing
Noexplicituseorexploitationofmemory

Rigidmemorymethods
Branchandboundmethods
Thesolutionapproachcompletelydictated

Inheritedmemory
Evolutionarymethods(geneticalgorithms)
Department of Biomedical, Human Factors, & Industrial

ResistancetoMemory
TSuseofmemorynotimmediatelyaccepted
Providesmanymoredegreesoffreedom
Resultisapproacheshardertoprove
Notasmathematicallytractable

Useofmemoryalsobringspitfalls
Properuseofmemoryisnotimmediatelyknown

Largepartofthetabusearchresearchnowis
findingintegratingprinciplesthatprovide
guidelinesforbestuseofmemory
Department of Biomedical, Human Factors, & Industrial

TabuSearchFunctions
Current Focus
MEMORY FUNCTIONS
Short
Term

Long
Term

Intermediate
Term
Glover, 1990

Department of Biomedical, Human Factors, & Industrial

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PurposeofFunctions
STRATEGIC COMPONENTS
Aggressive
Exploration

Diversification

Intensification
Glover, 1990

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ShortTermTabuSearch
Tabu Move

Tabu Search moves among neighborhoods

Department of Biomedical, Human Factors, & Industrial

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WhatareMoves?
Togglevariablebetween0and1
Swapnodesinaroutingtour
Swapnodesbetweentours
Insert/deleteedgeoperationongraph
Interchangevariablesfrombasis
There are common moves, but generally
moves are
specific to the application area. Moves
define the neighborhood for the problem.
Department of Biomedical, Human Factors, & Industrial

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DefinitionofTerms
Tabu
Characteristicprovidedamove,orattributesofa
move,thatputthatmoveofflimits

Tabulist
Memorystructureofmoveattributesthatare
currentlyinofflimitsstatus

Tabutenure
Numberofiterationsforwhichamove,orits
attributes,remainonthetabulist
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WhatisconsideredTabu?
Keeprecentvariablesfromtoggling
Freezeinplacerecentlymovednodes
Freezerecentlymovededges
Keepvariablesinoroutofbasis
The Tabu restriction simply prevents
revisiting, or cycling which is a nonproductive process. Needed to escape the
local optima trap.
Department of Biomedical, Human Factors, & Industrial

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DefinitionofTerms
Attributesofsolutions
Thoseaspectsthatdefineasolution
Amovebetweensolutionscanbedefinedasachange
tosomedefinedsetofattributesofthesolution

Attributivememory
Storesinformationaboutsolutionattributesthatare
changedimplementingamove

Explicitmemory
Recordstheactualsolution
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StillMoreDefinitions
Aggressiveexploration
Makethebestmovepossiblesubjecttothetabu
restrictionsinplace

Cycling
Cyclingoccurswhen,afteraseriesofmoves,the
searchreturnstoapreviouslyvisitedsolutionand
assumesthesamesearchtrajectoryaspreviously
explored

Neighborhood
Definedwithinthecontextoftheapplication
Department of Biomedical, Human Factors, & Industrial

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InterestingConcepts
Dynamictabutenure
Changethetabutenureforanyattribute
Canhaveeachentryintabulisthavevariedtenures
Canchangethetenurebasedonknowledgegleaned
fromthesearch
Calledareactivetabusearchstrategy

Aspirationcriteria
Meanstooverridetabustatus
Donotwanttomissgoodsolutions
Providesadditionalflexibilityinthesearch
Department of Biomedical, Human Factors, & Industrial

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MoreonAspirationCriteria?
MotivationdoNOTpassongoodsolutions
Typicalcriteria:
Bestsofar
Bestfoundinsomesetofsolutions
Bestaccordingtosomeothercriteria
Multipletypesofaspirationcriteriaarefine

Department of Biomedical, Human Factors, & Industrial

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ShortTermTabuSearch
Sufficientformanyproblems
Handsonwillonlyfocusonshorttermaspects

Tabutenurecanprovideenoughofanescape
mechanismforaneffectivesearch
Conceptofnonimprovingmovesforcesrouteoutof
localoptimalitybasin
Reactivelyincreasingthetabutenureimprovesthe
escapemechanism
Themoredifficultproblemsrequireadditionaltabu
searchconstructs

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ASimpleExample
(usethespreadsheetprovided)

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MKPExample
(shouldlooksomewhatfamiliar)

Maximize:
78x1+ 73x2 + 81x3 + 68x4 + 59x5 + 48x6 + 45x7 + 22x8+ 46x9 +
96x10 + 29x11 + 56x12 + 26x13 + 74x14 + 18x15

Subject to:
29x1+ 33x2 + 28x3 + 7x4 + 6x5 + 27x6 + 6x7 + 1x8+
32x9 + 38x10 + 31x11 + 22x12 + 27x13 + 1x14 + 9x15 153.5
1x1+ 10x2 + 7x3 + 14x4 + 14x5 + 13x6 + 8x7 + 13x8 +
10x9 + 7x10 + 3x11 + 11x12 + 10x13 + 8x14 + 9x15 69
32x1+ 24x2 + 26x3 + 12x4 + 14x5 + 1x6 + 34x7 + 6x8 +
3x9 + 18x10 + 20x11 + 15x12 + 8x13 + 7x14 + 36x15 128

Department of Biomedical,
x = 0,1 Human Factors, & Industrial

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ConsiderSimpleModel

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SimpleCaseOne
Move - Toggle a variable to 1 and
another to 0
Selected Move - Largest change, to
include non-improving moves
All moves will remain feasibility

Tabu list - prohibit variable toggled to 0

from toggling back to 1 again for 4
iterations
Department of Biomedical, Human Factors, & Industrial

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ProblemswithSimpleCase
Solutiondoesnotimproveverymuch
Neverreallycomesneartheconstraintlimits
forfeasibility
Asafesearch,butnotnearlyaggressiveenough
toprovidegoodsolutions

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ABetterSimpleCase
Move Part 1 - Toggle a variable to 1
Pick largest improvement as the move
Allow solution to become infeasible
Consider allowing infeasibility for multiple steps

Move Part 2 - Toggle a variable to 0

Continue until feasibility achieved
Drop item from most violated constraint whose
constraint coefficient is largest

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PossibleExtensions
Better initial solutions to start the search
Move and solution attributes you might
want to track
How might we diversify the search?
What type of solutions might we consider
saving in an elite list?
Could we make random moves?

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Questions?

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