A Hybrid ILS Heuristic to the Referee Assignment Problem with an Embedded MIP Strategy

Optimization in sports is a field of increasing interest. A novel problem in sports management is the Referee Assignment Problem, in which a limited number of referees with different qualifications and availabilities should be assigned to a set of games already scheduled. We extend and improve a previous three-phase approach for this problem, based on a constructive heuristic, a repair heuristic to make the initial solutions feasible, and an ILS improvement heuristic. We propose a new constructive algorithm based on a greedy criterion to build initial solutions. Furthermore, we develop a hybridization strategy in which a mixed integer programming exact algorithm replaces the original neighborhood-based local search within the ILS heuristic. Computational experiments are performed for large realistic instances. The use of time-to-target-solution-value plots is emphasized in the evaluation of the numerical results, illustrating the efficiency and the robustness of the new approach. The p...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2007
• Where: HM
• Authors: Alexandre R. Duarte, Celso C. Ribeiro, Sebastián Urrutia
• Keywords: HM 2007, Initial Solutions, Local Search, Optimization, Referee Assignment Problem