论文标题
针对部分指定问题组合优化的机器学习:遗憾的最小化为统一的镜头
Machine Learning for Combinatorial Optimisation of Partially-Specified Problems: Regret Minimisation as a Unifying Lens
论文作者
论文摘要
解决部分指定的组合优化问题越来越普遍。我们调查了目标函数或变量之间的关系尚不清楚或仅部分指定的情况。面临的挑战是从可用数据中学习它们,同时考虑到解决方案必须满足的一系列硬性约束,而解决优化问题(尤其是在学习过程中)在计算上非常要求。本文概述了四种看似无关的方法,它们可以被视为学习硬组合优化问题的目标函数:1)基于替代的优化,2)经验模型学习,3)以决策为中心的学习(“预测 +优化”),以及4)结构性输出预测。我们首先以文献中常见的方式将每个学习范式正式化,然后以兼容的方式将形式化融合在一起。我们讨论了这些框架之间的差异和互动,突出了交叉施用和调查开放方向的机会。
It is increasingly common to solve combinatorial optimisation problems that are partially-specified. We survey the case where the objective function or the relations between variables are not known or are only partially specified. The challenge is to learn them from available data, while taking into account a set of hard constraints that a solution must satisfy, and that solving the optimisation problem (esp. during learning) is computationally very demanding. This paper overviews four seemingly unrelated approaches, that can each be viewed as learning the objective function of a hard combinatorial optimisation problem: 1) surrogate-based optimisation, 2) empirical model learning, 3) decision-focused learning (`predict + optimise'), and 4) structured-output prediction. We formalise each learning paradigm, at first in the ways commonly found in the literature, and then bring the formalisations together in a compatible way using regret. We discuss the differences and interactions between these frameworks, highlight the opportunities for cross-fertilization and survey open directions.