Exploiting commonality in heuristic search

启发式搜索技术是一种系统的方法，用来为最能达到某个目标的一个解决方案探索一大组可能的解决方案。例如，在婚礼招待会上安排宾客的方法有很多，但新婚夫妇仍然需要很长时间才能找到他们双方都能达成一致的一种。对于这个问题，大多数夫妇会使用一种迭代改进的形式--从一个解决方案开始，对其进行更改以创建新的解决方案，进行额外的更改，等等，直到找到最终可接受的解决方案。遗传算法、模拟退火法、禁忌搜索等启发式搜索技术都是进行迭代改进的方法。具体地说，这些搜索技术都采用了“改变操作符”(创建新解决方案的方法)和“控制策略”(控制接受哪些新解决方案的方法)。例如，你可能建议调换两张桌子，而你的伴侣可能会说“不，那更糟”或“是的，但这个问题仍然需要解决”。

Heuristic search techniques are systematic methods to explore a large set of possible solutions for the one solution that best achieves some objective. For example, there are many ways to arrange guests at a wedding reception, but it can still take newlyweds a long time to find one that they can both agree on. For this problem, most couples would use a form of iterative improvement - start with one solution, make changes to it to create a new solution, make additional changes, etc, until a final acceptable solution is found. Heuristic search techniques such as genetic algorithms, simulated annealing, tabu search, etc are all methods that perform iterative improvement. Specifically, these search techniques all employ "change operators" (methods to create new solutions) and "control strategies" (methods to control which new solutions are accepted). For example, you might suggest swapping two tables, and your partner might say "no, that's worse" or "yes, but this still needs to be addressed".