Metaheuristics vs exact method

hi i want to know if we can find a solution for a given problem solved with metaheuristics which is better than a solution found by an exact method? i know that exact method give optimal solutions. But a such exception can it be found??

Answer 1

[JESUS DAVID ARIZA ROYETH]

Metaheuristic methods are mostly used in cases whether using an exact method has a very high computational cost or there is no proper exact method to solve the problem. However, lots of exact methods require certain initial parameters, that if not defined well can lead to problems of convergence, so this could be an exception. On the other hand, metaheuristic methods can lead to a solution but it is not always optimal. In a variety of cases the initial parameters of an exact method are defined using heuristics to guarantee that the method can converge. That would be a possible solution to the exception that was mentioned before.