From Theory to Implementation: Applying Metaheuristics.

Abstract

Metaheuristics are strategies to design heuristic procedures to find high quality solutions to an optimization problem. This chapter focuses on the implementation aspects of heuristic algorithms based on metaheuristics, using an object oriented approach. This programming paradigm takes advantage of the common parts shared by codes that implement different metaheuristic procedures. We give a class hierarchy for metaheuristics that permits quickly generate algorithms from existing metaheuristic codes for specific problems by extending a few classes and adding the problem functionality. It also allows the development of new metaheuristic algorithms without programming from scratch the basis of the procedure. It consists of selecting an appropriate class with the closest functionality, and extending it to add the core of the algorithm. The purpose of this hierarchy is thus to provide an extensible model for a quick implementation of metaheuristics and the problem structures associated with them.