What are the common mistakes in simulated annealing?

What are the common mistakes in simulated annealing?

Some common mistakes include using an inappropriate cooling schedule, not allowing enough iterations, and poor initial solutions.

Can you explain what a cooling schedule is?

A cooling schedule determines how the temperature decreases over time, affecting the algorithm's ability to escape local minima.

What happens if the cooling schedule is too fast?

If the cooling schedule is too fast, the algorithm may converge prematurely to a suboptimal solution, missing better ones.

How can I choose a better initial solution?

Choosing a better initial solution can involve using heuristics, domain knowledge, or running a simpler optimization first.

Are there any tools to help with simulated annealing?

Yes, there are several libraries and tools like SciPy in Python that provide implementations of simulated annealing.