Autonomous Search

Autonomous combinatorial search (AS) represents a new field in combinatorial problem solving. Its major standpoint and originality is that it considers that problem solvers must be able to perform self-improvement operations. It involves both short-term reactive reconfiguration and long-term improvement through self-analysis of the performance. In some AS implementations, the solver itself is used at a metalevel to do some reasoning about its performance. In general AS systems perform some analysis of a solver performance and change their inner configuration to more efficiently accommodate their external problem-solving duties.
This is the first book dedicated to this topic, and it will act as a reference for researchers, engineers and postgraduates in the areas of constraint programming, machine learning, evolutionary computing, and feedback control theory. After the editors' introduction to autonomous search, the chapters are focused on tuning algorithm parameters, autonomous complete (tree-based) constraint solvers, control in metaheuristics, and heuristics.