Work

Reinforcement Learning Based Acceptance Criteria for Metaheuristic Algorithms

Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: This paper proposes novel reinforcement learning-based acceptance criteria for metaheuristic algorithms. We develop Q-learning and Deep Q-learning-based acceptance criteria and integrate them into simulated annealing (SA) and artificial bee colony (ABC) algorithms. Also, we design two versions of these novel acceptance criteria: the online version and the offline version of Q-learning and deep Q-learning based acceptance criteria. The online version starts to train itself and to make decisions to accept or reject the candidate solution with the start of the metaheuristic. The offline version uses a trained and well-tuned Q-learning and deep Q-learning based acceptance criteria to make accept/reject decisions. Our experimental study compares our proposed acceptance criteria with existing ones, such as fuzzy rule-based acceptance (FRBA) and simulated annealing-like acceptance (SALA) criteria. The experiment reveals that metaheuristics with deep Q-learning-based offline acceptance criteria outperform metaheuristics with existing acceptance criteria and other variants in this study.
Institution: Erciyes University
Language: English
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $2,490
OpenAlex ID: W4413124744
FWCI: 2.136
Cites: 57
Cited by: 5
Related to: 10