Chunking Applied to Reactive Tabu Search

In an earlier paper (Woodruff 1994) we describe the use of, and search for, groupings of solution vector elements that we refer to as chunks. The use of chunks has the potential to enhance heuristic search methods such as tabu search and genetic algorithms. In this paper we have two goals: 1) we describe the details of a fully generalized application of chunking to reactive tabu search (Bat-titi and Tecchiolli 1994) and give some computational results on a particular problem and 2) we use the chunks to explore the nature of the relationship between the search and cups (i.e., domains of attraction or chaotic attractors). We find that chunking allows us to characterize the shape and location of cups in a useful way. We are able to compute the distance from a group of solutions believed to be from one cup to a given solution and test that solution for membership in the cup.