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README.md
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       # Restart Based Meta-Search Experiments

     

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       This repository contains benchmarks of restart based meta-search presented in

     

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       > Dekker J.J., de la Banda M.G., Schutt A., Stuckey P.J., Tack G. (2018) Solver-Independent Large Neighbourhood Search. In: Hooker J. (eds) Principles and Practice of Constraint Programming. CP 2018. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 11008. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-98334-9_6

     

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       and included in Jip J. Dekker's PhD Thesis.

     

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       These experiments concern the usage of propagation engine adjustments that capture some of the context of the current search space.

     

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       This context can later be accessed by special propagators to enforce properties that are interesting for meta-search.

     

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       Such as:

     

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       - The last value a variable has taken

     

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       - The last solution a variable has taken

     

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       - A random value, to be assigned by a variable

     

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       These benchmarks tests the effectiveness of this approach.

     

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       The experiments are conducted on the `gbac`, `rcpsp-wet` and `steelmillslab` problems from the MiniZinc challenge.

     

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       Each model is given two neighbourhoods for an round-robin LNS approach.

     

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       ## Setup

     

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       The script `setup.sh` contains initial configuration of the experiments:

     

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       - The amount of time given for the test (120 sec)

     

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       - The amount of repeats for randomised search (10)

     

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       - It adds the correect version of MiniZinc to the `PATH`

     

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       The solver versions used are stored in the `software/` folder as git sub-modules.

     

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       The `install.sh` script can be used to compile the solvers and put them in the correct place.

     

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       ## Run

     

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       The experiments can be run as different parts:

     

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       - Regular Gecode (base-line)

     

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       - Regular Chuffed (base-line)

     

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       - Restart Based Gecode (proposal)

     

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       - Restart Based Chuffed (proposal)

     

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       - Recording Gecode (data for replay)

     

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       - Replaying Gecode (ideal-case, no-computation)

     

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       For each part there is a `run_*.sh` script that will run the experiments and put its results into the `output` folder.

     

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       The `run_all.sh` script can be used to run them all in sequences.

     

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       ## Analyse

     

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       The scripts `analyse_{gecode,chuffed}.py` can be used to process the information gathered during the experiments.

     

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       Each script is specific to that solver.

     

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       It takes the output folder of one of the runs as an argument (e.g., `output/gecode/gbac/original`).

     

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       The script produces a CSV format that can then be processed using software like Excel or Numbers.