4,773 research outputs found
Solving a "Hard" Problem to Approximate an "Easy" One: Heuristics for Maximum Matchings and Maximum Traveling Salesman Problems
We consider geometric instances of the Maximum Weighted Matching Problem
(MWMP) and the Maximum Traveling Salesman Problem (MTSP) with up to 3,000,000
vertices. Making use of a geometric duality relationship between MWMP, MTSP,
and the Fermat-Weber-Problem (FWP), we develop a heuristic approach that yields
in near-linear time solutions as well as upper bounds. Using various
computational tools, we get solutions within considerably less than 1% of the
optimum.
An interesting feature of our approach is that, even though an FWP is hard to
compute in theory and Edmonds' algorithm for maximum weighted matching yields a
polynomial solution for the MWMP, the practical behavior is just the opposite,
and we can solve the FWP with high accuracy in order to find a good heuristic
solution for the MWMP.Comment: 20 pages, 14 figures, Latex, to appear in Journal of Experimental
Algorithms, 200
Parallel ACO with a Ring Neighborhood for Dynamic TSP
The current paper introduces a new parallel computing technique based on ant
colony optimization for a dynamic routing problem. In the dynamic traveling
salesman problem the distances between cities as travel times are no longer
fixed. The new technique uses a parallel model for a problem variant that
allows a slight movement of nodes within their Neighborhoods. The algorithm is
tested with success on several large data sets.Comment: 8 pages, 1 figure; accepted J. Information Technology Researc
An interacting replica approach applied to the traveling salesman problem
We present a physics inspired heuristic method for solving combinatorial
optimization problems. Our approach is specifically motivated by the desire to
avoid trapping in metastable local minima- a common occurrence in hard problems
with multiple extrema. Our method involves (i) coupling otherwise independent
simulations of a system ("replicas") via geometrical distances as well as (ii)
probabilistic inference applied to the solutions found by individual replicas.
The {\it ensemble} of replicas evolves as to maximize the inter-replica
correlation while simultaneously minimize the local intra-replica cost function
(e.g., the total path length in the Traveling Salesman Problem within each
replica). We demonstrate how our method improves the performance of rudimentary
local optimization schemes long applied to the NP hard Traveling Salesman
Problem. In particular, we apply our method to the well-known "-opt"
algorithm and examine two particular cases- and . With the aid of
geometrical coupling alone, we are able to determine for the optimum tour
length on systems up to cities (an order of magnitude larger than the
largest systems typically solved by the bare opt). The probabilistic
replica-based inference approach improves even further and determines
the optimal solution of a problem with cities and find tours whose total
length is close to that of the optimal solutions for other systems with a
larger number of cities.Comment: To appear in SAI 2016 conference proceedings 12 pages,17 figure
A hybrid heuristic solving the traveling salesman problem
This paper presents a new hybrid heuristic for solving the Traveling Salesman Problem, The
algorithm is designed on the frame of a general optimization procedure which acts upon two steps,
iteratively. In first step of the global search, a feasible tour is constructed based on insertion approach.
In the second step the feasible tour found at the first step, is improved by a local search optimization
procedure. The second part of the paper presents the performances of the proposed heuristic algorithm, on
several test instances. The statistical analysis shows the effectiveness of the local search optimization
procedure, in the graphical representation.peer-reviewe
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