Machine Learning for K-Adaptability in Two-Stage Robust Optimization

Journal Article (2025)
Author(s)

E.A.T. Julien (TU Delft - Discrete Mathematics and Optimization)

Krzysztof Postek (TU Delft - Discrete Mathematics and Optimization)

IIlker Birbil (Universiteit van Amsterdam)

Research Group
Discrete Mathematics and Optimization
DOI related publication
https://doi.org/10.1287/ijoc.2022.0314
More Info
expand_more
Publication Year
2025
Language
English
Research Group
Discrete Mathematics and Optimization
Issue number
3
Volume number
37
Pages (from-to)
644-665
Reuse Rights

Other than for strictly personal use, it is not permitted to download, forward or distribute the text or part of it, without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), unless the work is under an open content license such as Creative Commons.

Abstract

Two-stage robust optimization problems constitute one of the hardest optimization problem classes. One of the solution approaches to this class of problems is K-adaptability. This approach simultaneously seeks the best partitioning of the uncertainty set of scenarios into K subsets and optimizes decisions corresponding to each of these subsets. In a general case, it is solved using the K-adaptability branch-and-bound algorithm, which requires exploration of exponentially growing solution trees. To accelerate finding high-quality solutions in such trees, we propose a machine learning-based node selection strategy. In particular, we construct a feature engineering scheme based on general two-stage robust optimization insights, which allows us to train our machine learning tool on a database of resolved branch-and-bound trees and to apply it as is to problems of different sizes and/or types. We experimentally show that using our learned node selection strategy outperforms a vanilla, random node selection strategy when tested on problems of the same type as the training problems as well as in cases when the K-value or the problem size differs from the training ones.

Files

2210.11152v3.pdf
(pdf | 8.75 Mb)
License info not available