scholarly journals Solving the Traveling Salesman Problem with Ant Colony Optimization: A Revisit and New Efficient Algorithms

2013 ◽  
Vol 2 (3-4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hoang Xuan Huan ◽  
Nguyen Linh-Trung ◽  
Do Duc Dong ◽  
Huu-Tue Huynh
Keyword(s):  
Ant Colony Optimization ◽  
Traveling Salesman Problem ◽  
Traveling Salesman ◽  
Ant Colony ◽  
Ant System ◽  
Benchmark Datasets ◽  
General Aspects ◽  
The Traveling Salesman Problem ◽  
Combinatoric Optimization

Ant colony optimization (ACO) techniques are known to be efficient for combinatorial optimization. The traveling salesman problem (TSP) is the benchmark used for testing new combinatoric optimization algorithms. This paper revisits the application of ACO techniques to the TSP and discuss some general aspects of ACO that have been previously overlooked. In fact, it is observed that the solution length does not reflect exactly the quality of a particular edge belong to the solution, but it is only used for relatively evaluating whether the edge is good or bad in the process of reinforcement learning. Based on this observation, we propose two algorithms– Smoothed Max-Min Ant System and Three-Level Ant System– which not only can be easily implemented but also provide better performance, as compared to the well-known Max-Min Ant System. The performance is evaluated by numerical simulation using benchmark datasets.

scholarly journals Dynamic Flying Ant Colony Optimization (DFACO) for Solving the Traveling Salesman Problem

Sensors ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (8) ◽  
pp. 1837 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dahan ◽  
El Hindi ◽  
Mathkour ◽  
AlSalman
Keyword(s):  
Ant Colony Optimization ◽  
Traveling Salesman Problem ◽  
Service Selection ◽  
Traveling Salesman ◽  
Ant Colony ◽  
Neighboring Node ◽  
Solution Quality ◽  
Web Service Selection ◽  
The Traveling Salesman Problem

This paper presents an adaptation of the flying ant colony optimization (FACO) algorithm to solve the traveling salesman problem (TSP). This new modification is called dynamic flying ant colony optimization (DFACO). FACO was originally proposed to solve the quality of service (QoS)-aware web service selection problem. Many researchers have addressed the TSP, but most solutions could not avoid the stagnation problem. In FACO, a flying ant deposits a pheromone by injecting it from a distance; therefore, not only the nodes on the path but also the neighboring nodes receive the pheromone. The amount of pheromone a neighboring node receives is inversely proportional to the distance between it and the node on the path. In this work, we modified the FACO algorithm to make it suitable for TSP in several ways. For example, the number of neighboring nodes that received pheromones varied depending on the quality of the solution compared to the rest of the solutions. This helped to balance the exploration and exploitation strategies. We also embedded the 3-Opt algorithm to improve the solution by mitigating the effect of the stagnation problem. Moreover, the colony contained a combination of regular and flying ants. These modifications aim to help the DFACO algorithm obtain better solutions in less processing time and avoid getting stuck in local minima. This work compared DFACO with (1) ACO and five different methods using 24 TSP datasets and (2) parallel ACO (PACO)-3Opt using 22 TSP datasets. The empirical results showed that DFACO achieved the best results compared with ACO and the five different methods for most of the datasets (23 out of 24) in terms of the quality of the solutions. Further, it achieved better results compared with PACO-3Opt for most of the datasets (20 out of 21) in terms of solution quality and execution time.

An Improved Ant Colony System Based on Negative Biased

2010 ◽  
Vol 439-440 ◽  
pp. 558-562
Author(s):  
Jin Qiu Yang ◽  
Jian Gang Yang ◽  
Gen Lang Chen
Keyword(s):  
Convergence Rate ◽  
Ant Colony Optimization ◽  
Traveling Salesman Problem ◽  
Traveling Salesman ◽  
Ant Colony ◽  
Ant Colony System ◽  
Ant System

Ant System (AS) was the first Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) algorithm, which converged too slowly and consumed huge computation. Among the variants of AS, Ant Colony System (ACS) was one of the most successful algorithms. But ACS converged so rapidly that it always was in early stagnation. An improved Ant Colony System based on Negative Biased (NBACS) was introduced in the paper to overcome the early stagnation of the ACS. Experiments for Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP) showed that better solutions were obtained at the same time when the convergence rate accelerated more rapidly.

scholarly journals Advanced Harmony Search with Ant Colony Optimization for Solving the Traveling Salesman Problem

2013 ◽  
Vol 2013 ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ho-Yoeng Yun ◽  
Suk-Jae Jeong ◽  
Kyung-Sup Kim
Keyword(s):  
Ant Colony Optimization ◽  
Traveling Salesman Problem ◽  
Harmony Search ◽  
Solution Space ◽  
Global Optimum ◽  
Traveling Salesman ◽  
Ant Colony ◽  
Local Optimum ◽  
Optimum Solution ◽  
The Traveling Salesman Problem

We propose a novel heuristic algorithm based on the methods of advanced Harmony Search and Ant Colony Optimization (AHS-ACO) to effectively solve the Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP). The TSP, in general, is well known as an NP-complete problem, whose computational complexity increases exponentially by increasing the number of cities. In our algorithm, Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) is used to search the local optimum in the solution space, followed by the use of the Harmony Search to escape the local optimum determined by the ACO and to move towards a global optimum. Experiments were performed to validate the efficiency of our algorithm through a comparison with other algorithms and the optimum solutions presented in the TSPLIB. The results indicate that our algorithm is capable of generating the optimum solution for most instances in the TSPLIB; moreover, our algorithm found better solutions in two cases (kroB100 and pr144) when compared with the optimum solution presented in the TSPLIB.

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