Genetic algorithm for combinatorial path planning: The subtour problem

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to present a combinatorial planner for autonomous systems. The approach is demonstrated on the so-called subtour problem, a variant of the classical traveling salesman problem (TSP): given a set of n possible goals/targets, the optimal strategy is sought that connects k≤n goals. The proposed solution method is a Genetic Algorithm coupled with a heuristic local search. To validate the approach, the method has been benchmarked against TSPs and subtour problems with known optimal solutions. Numerical experiments demonstrate the success of the approach. © 2011 Giovanni Giardini and Tams Kalmr-Nagy.