Branch and price
Branch and price is an exact optimization algorithm combining branch-and-bound search with column generation, used for problems with exponentially many variables such as crew scheduling and vehicle routing.
Column generation
Column generation is an optimization method that solves linear programs with very many variables by iteratively adding useful columns, used for cutting stock and vehicle routing.
Constraint programming
Constraint programming is an approach where a problem is stated by constraints on decision variables, and a solver finds satisfying assignments by interleaving constraint propagation with systematic search.
Cooperative optimization
Cooperative optimization is a global optimization method that decomposes a hard energy function into coupled subproblems, formulated by Xiaofei Huang in 2004 for computer vision labeling.
Distributed constraint optimization
Distributed constraint optimization (DCOP) is a framework for multi-agent cooperation where agents control parts of a problem's variables and communicate by message passing to optimize a global objective.
Dual decomposition
Dual decomposition is an optimization method that solves a large constrained problem by splitting it into subproblems coordinated through dual variables acting as prices, allowing parallel solution.
Functional decomposition
Functional decomposition is a method that breaks a complex function into simpler subfunctions computed separately and recombined by composition, fundamental in logic synthesis and FPGA design.