Discrete symbiotic organisms search algorithm for travelling salesman problem

What is it about?

A Discrete Symbiotic Organisms Search (DSOS) algorithm for finding a near optimal solution for the Trav- elling Salesman Problem (TSP) is proposed. The SOS is a metaheuristic search optimization algorithm, inspired by the symbiotic interaction strategies often adopted by organisms in the ecosystem for survival and propagation. This new optimization algorithm has been proven to be very effective and robust in solving numerical optimization and engineering design problems. In this paper, the SOS is improved and extended by using three mutation-based local search operators to reconstruct its population, improve its exploration and exploitation capability, and accelerate the convergence speed. To prove that the proposed solution approach of the DSOS is a promising technique for solving combinatorial problems like the TSPs, a set of benchmarks of symmetric TSP instances selected from the TSPLIB library are used to evaluate its performance against other heuristic algorithms. Numerical results obtained show that the proposed op- timization method can achieve results close to the theoretical best known solutions within a reasonable time frame.

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Why is it important?

The main contribution of this paper is the proposal of an improved and extended version of the SOS algorithm using mutation-based local search operators to reconstruct its population, improve its exploration and exploitation capability, and quality of solution regardless of computing time.

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