Variable neighborhood search
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Variable neighborhood search (VNS),[1] proposed by Mladenović & Hansen in 1997,[2] is a metaheuristic method for solving a set of combinatorial optimization and global optimization problems. It explores distant neighborhoods of the current incumbent solution, and moves from there to a new one if and only if an improvement was made. The local search method is applied repeatedly to get from solutions in the neighborhood to local optima. VNS was designed for approximating solutions of discrete and continuous optimization problems and according to these, it is aimed for solving linear program problems, integer program problems, mixed integer program problems, nonlinear program problems, etc.