LocalSolver 1.x: a black‐box local‐search solver for 0‐1 programming

This paper introduces LocalSolver 1.x, a black‐box local‐search solver for general 0‐1 programming. This software allows OR practitioners to focus on the modeling of the problem using a simple formalism, and then to defer its actual resolution to a solver based on efficient and reliable local‐search techniques. Started in 2007, the goal of the LocalSolver project is to offer a model‐and‐run approach to combinatorial optimization problems which are out of reach of existing black‐box tree‐search solvers (integer or constraint programming). Having outlined the modeling formalism and the main technical features behind LocalSolver, its effectiveness is demonstrated through an extensive computational study. The version 1.1 of LocalSolver can be freely downloaded at http://www.localsolver.com and used for educational, research, or commercial purposes.