A Constraint-directed Local Search Approach to Nurse Rostering Problems

Fang He
(University of Nottingham)
Rong Qu
(University of Nottingham)

In this paper, we investigate the hybridization of constraint programming and local search techniques within a large neighbourhood search scheme for solving highly constrained nurse rostering problems. As identified by the research, a crucial part of the large neighbourhood search is the selection of the fragment (neighbourhood, i.e. the set of variables), to be relaxed and re-optimized iteratively. The success of the large neighbourhood search depends on the adequacy of this identified neighbourhood with regard to the problematic part of the solution assignment and the choice of the neighbourhood size. We investigate three strategies to choose the fragment of different sizes within the large neighbourhood search scheme. The first two strategies are tailored concerning the problem properties. The third strategy is more general, using the information of the cost from the soft constraint violations and their propagation as the indicator to choose the variables added into the fragment. The three strategies are analyzed and compared upon a benchmark nurse rostering problem. Promising results demonstrate the possibility of future work in the hybrid approach.

In Yves Deville and Christine Solnon: Proceedings 6th International Workshop on Local Search Techniques in Constraint Satisfaction (LSCS 2009), Lisbon, Portugal, 20 September 2009, Electronic Proceedings in Theoretical Computer Science 5, pp. 69–80.
Published: 8th October 2009.

ArXived at: https://dx.doi.org/10.4204/EPTCS.5.6 bibtex PDF

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