A DSS based on hybrid ant colony optimization algorithm for the TSP

Abstract

The traveling salesman problem (TSP) is one of the most studied problems in combinatorial optimization due to its importance and NP-hard numerous approximation methods were proposed to solve it. In this paper, we propose a new hybrid approach which combines local search with the ant colony optimization algorithm (ACO) for solving the TSP. The performance of the proposed algorithm is highlighted through the implementation of a Decision Support System (DSS). Some benchmark problems are selected to test the performance of the proposed hybrid method. We compare the ability of our algorithm with the classical ACO and against some well-known methods. The experiments show that the proposed hybrid method can efficiently improve the quality of solutions than the classical ACO algorithm, and distinctly speed up computing time. Our approach is also better than the performance of compared algorithms in most cases in terms of solution quality and robustness.