Ensemble move acceptance in selection hyper-heuristics

Abstract

Selection hyper-heuristics are high level search methodologies which control a set of low level heuristics while solving a given problem. Move acceptance is a crucial component of selection hyperheuristics, deciding whether to accept or reject a new solution at each step during the search process. This study investigates group decision making strategies as ensemble methods exploiting the strengths of multiple move acceptance methods for improved performance. The empirical results indicate the success of the proposed methods across six combinatorial optimisation problems from a benchmark as well as an examination timetabling problem.