Learning Configurations for Data-Driven Multi-Objective Optimization

Abstract

Multi-objective optimization problems arise widely in various fields. In practice, multi-objective optimization is generally solved by heuristics with tunable parameters that are highly application-specific. Tuning parameters based on real-world instances (a.k.a. algorithm configuration) are generally empirical without theoretical guarantees. In this work, we establish the theoretical foundation of data-driven multi-objective optimization through the lens of machine learning theory. We provide generalization guarantees on selecting parameters for multi-objective optimization algorithms based on sampled problem instances. Moreover, if the performance metric of the algorithm is the Pareto volume, we can PAC-learn the approximately optimal configuration in polynomial time. We apply our framework to various algorithms, including approximation algorithms, local search, and linear programming. Experiments on multiple problems verify our theoretical findings.