Estimating Problem Instance Difficulty

Hermann Kaindl, Ralph Hoch, Roman Popp

2020

Abstract

Even though for solving concrete problem instances, e.g., through case-based reasoning (CBR) or heuristic search, estimating their difficulty really matters, there is not much theory available. In a prototypical real-world application of CBR for reuse of hardware/software interfaces (HSIs) in automotive systems, where the problem adaptation has been done through heuristic search, we have been facing this problem. Hence, this work compares different approaches to estimating problem instance difficulty (similarity metrics, heuristic functions). It also shows that even measuring problem instance difficulty depends on the ground truth available and used. A few different approaches are investigated on how they statistically correlate. Overall, this paper compares different approaches to both estimating and measuring problem instance difficulty with respect to CBR and heuristic search. In addition to the given real-world domain, experiments were made using sliding-tile puzzles. As a consequence, this paper points out that admissible heuristic functions h guiding search (normally used for estimating minimal costs to a given goal state or condition) may be used for retrieving cases for CBR as well.

Paper Citation

in Harvard Style

Kaindl H., Hoch R. and Popp R. (2020). Estimating Problem Instance Difficulty.In Proceedings of the 22nd International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems - Volume 1: ICEIS, ISBN 978-989-758-423-7, pages 359-369. DOI: 10.5220/0009390003590369

in Bibtex Style

@conference{iceis20,
author={Hermann Kaindl and Ralph Hoch and Roman Popp},
title={Estimating Problem Instance Difficulty},
booktitle={Proceedings of the 22nd International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems - Volume 1: ICEIS,},
year={2020},
pages={359-369},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0009390003590369},
isbn={978-989-758-423-7},
}

in EndNote Style

TY - CONF

JO - Proceedings of the 22nd International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems - Volume 1: ICEIS,
TI - Estimating Problem Instance Difficulty
SN - 978-989-758-423-7
AU - Kaindl H.
AU - Hoch R.
AU - Popp R.
PY - 2020
SP - 359
EP - 369
DO - 10.5220/0009390003590369