Two-Stage Learning to Branch in Branch-Price-and-Cut Algorithms for Solving Vehicle Routing Problems Exactly
Branching is one of the most important components in branch-price-and-cut (BPC) algorithms for solving vehicle routing problems (VRPs) exactly. However, learning to branch is much more challenging in BPC than in branch-and-cut algorithms that are used for solving general mixed integer programs. To address such challenges, we propose the first effective learning-to-branch framework in BPC algorithms, leading to a novel two-stage learning-based branching (2LBB) strategy.