Improved scatter search algorithm based on meerkat clan algorithm to solve NP-hard problems

A modified Scatter Search (SS) algorithm based on Meerkat Clan Algorithm (MCA) has been presented in this paper. SS is one of the important metaheuristic algorithms, while the MCA is one of the recent swarm intelligence algorithms. The modified SS algorithm, including the main steps of MCA, through it the diversity and exploration of SS-MCA's solutions, have improved. The proposed algorithm has been applied to two important NP-Hard problems (Travelling Salesman Problem (TSP) and Flexible Job Shop Scheduling Problem (FJSSP)) to verify the performance of SS-MCA. The experimental results show that the performance of SS-MCA is better than both SS and MCA, respectively