scholarly journals Solving Multiple Traveling Salesman Problem by Meerkat Swarm Optimization Algorithm

Author(s):  
Belal Al-Khateeb ◽  
Mohammed Yousif

Multiple Traveling Salesman Problem (MTSP) is one of various real-life applications, MTSP is the extension of the Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP). TSP focuses on searching of minimum or shortest path (traveling distance) to visit all cities by salesman, while the primary goal of MTSP is to find shortest path for m paths by n salesmen with minimized total cost. Wherever, total cost means the sum of distances of all salesmen. In this work, we proposed metaheuristic algorithm is called Meerkat Swarm Optimization (MSO) algorithm for solving MTSP and guarantee good quality solution in reasonable time for real-life problems. MSO is a metaheuristic optimization algorithm that is derived from the behavior of Meerkat in finding the shortest path. The implementation is done using many dataset from TSPLIB95. The results demonstrate that MSO in most results is better than another results that compared in average cost that means the MSO superior to other results of MTSP.

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 173-184
Author(s):  
Y.D. Wang ◽  
X.C. Lu ◽  
J.R. Shen

The multiple traveling salesman problem (mTSP) is an extension of the traveling salesman problem (TSP), which has wider applications in real life than the traveling salesman problem such as transportation and delivery, task allocation, etc. In this paper, an improved genetic algorithm (VNS-GA) that uses polar coordinate classification to generate the initial solutions is proposed. It integrates the variable neighbourhood algorithm to solve the multiple objective optimization of the mTSP with workload balance. Aiming to workload balance, the first design of this paper is about generating initial solutions based on the polar coordinate classification. Then a distance comparison insertion operator is designed as a neighbourhood action for allocating paths in a targeted manner. Finally, the neighbourhood descent process in the variable neighbourhood algorithm is fused into the genetic algorithm for the expansion of search space. The improved algorithm is tested on the TSPLIB standard data set and compared with other genetic algorithms. The results show that the improved genetic algorithm can increase computational efficiency and obtain a better solution for workload balance and this algorithm has wild applications in real life such as multiple robots task allocation, school bus routing problem and other optimization problems.


Symmetry ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 48
Author(s):  
Jin Zhang ◽  
Li Hong ◽  
Qing Liu

The whale optimization algorithm is a new type of swarm intelligence bionic optimization algorithm, which has achieved good optimization results in solving continuous optimization problems. However, it has less application in discrete optimization problems. A variable neighborhood discrete whale optimization algorithm for the traveling salesman problem (TSP) is studied in this paper. The discrete code is designed first, and then the adaptive weight, Gaussian disturbance, and variable neighborhood search strategy are introduced, so that the population diversity and the global search ability of the algorithm are improved. The proposed algorithm is tested by 12 classic problems of the Traveling Salesman Problem Library (TSPLIB). Experiment results show that the proposed algorithm has better optimization performance and higher efficiency compared with other popular algorithms and relevant literature.


Algorithms ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 21
Author(s):  
Christoph Hansknecht ◽  
Imke Joormann ◽  
Sebastian Stiller

The time-dependent traveling salesman problem (TDTSP) asks for a shortest Hamiltonian tour in a directed graph where (asymmetric) arc-costs depend on the time the arc is entered. With traffic data abundantly available, methods to optimize routes with respect to time-dependent travel times are widely desired. This holds in particular for the traveling salesman problem, which is a corner stone of logistic planning. In this paper, we devise column-generation-based IP methods to solve the TDTSP in full generality, both for arc- and path-based formulations. The algorithmic key is a time-dependent shortest path problem, which arises from the pricing problem of the column generation and is of independent interest—namely, to find paths in a time-expanded graph that are acyclic in the underlying (non-expanded) graph. As this problem is computationally too costly, we price over the set of paths that contain no cycles of length k. In addition, we devise—tailored for the TDTSP—several families of valid inequalities, primal heuristics, a propagation method, and a branching rule. Combining these with the time-dependent shortest path pricing we provide—to our knowledge—the first elaborate method to solve the TDTSP in general and with fully general time-dependence. We also provide for results on complexity and approximability of the TDTSP. In computational experiments on randomly generated instances, we are able to solve the large majority of small instances (20 nodes) to optimality, while closing about two thirds of the remaining gap of the large instances (40 nodes) after one hour of computation.


2009 ◽  
Vol 626-627 ◽  
pp. 717-722 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hong Kui Feng ◽  
Jin Song Bao ◽  
Jin Ye

A lot of practical problem, such as the scheduling of jobs on multiple parallel production lines and the scheduling of multiple vehicles transporting goods in logistics, can be modeled as the multiple traveling salesman problem (MTSP). Due to the combinatorial complexity of the MTSP, it is necessary to use heuristics to solve the problem, and a discrete particle swarm optimization (DPSO) algorithm is employed in this paper. Particle swarm optimization (PSO) in the continuous space has obtained great success in resolving some minimization problems. But when applying PSO for the MTSP, a difficulty rises, which is to find a suitable mapping between sequence and continuous position of particles in particle swarm optimization. For overcoming this difficulty, PSO is combined with ant colony optimization (ACO), and the mapping between sequence and continuous position of particles is established. To verify the efficiency of the DPSO algorithm, it is used to solve the MTSP and its performance is compared with the ACO and some traditional DPSO algorithms. The computational results show that the proposed DPSO algorithm is efficient.


2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 79-91
Author(s):  
Azcarie Manuel Cabrera Cuevas ◽  
Jania Astrid Saucedo Martínez ◽  
José Antonio Marmolejo Saucedo

The variation of the traveling salesman problem (TSP) with multiple salesmen (m-TSP) has been studied for many years resulting in diverse solution methods, both exact and heuristic. However, the high difficulty level on finding optimal (or acceptable) solutions has opposed the many efforts of doing so. The proposed method regards a two stage procedure which implies a modified version of the p-Median Problem (PMP) alongside the TSP, making a partition of the nodes into subsets that will be assigned to each salesman, solving it with Branch & Cut (B&C), in the first stage. This is followed by the routing, applying an Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) metaheuristic algorithm to solve a TSP for each subset of nodes. A case study was reviewed, detailing the positioning of five vehicles in strategic places in the Mexican Republic.


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