A critical element-guided perturbation strategy for iterated local search

Abstract

In this paper, we study the perturbation operator of Iterated Local Search. To guide more efficiently the search to move towards new promising regions of the search space, we introduce a Critical Element-Guided Perturbation strategy (CEGP). This perturbation approach consistsof the identification of critical elements and then focusing on thesecritical elements within the perturbation operator. Computational experiments on two case studies-graph coloring and course timetabling-give evidence that this critical element-guided perturbation strategy helps reinforce the performance of Iterated Local Search. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2009.