A cultural algorithm for solving the set covering problem

Abstract

In this paper we apply a new evolutive approach for solving the Set Covering Problem. This problem is a reasonably well known NP-complete optimization problem with many real world applications. We use a Cultural Evolutionary Architecture to maintain knowledge of Diversity and Fitness learned over each generation during the search process. Our results indicate that the approach is able to produce competitive results in compare with other approximation algorithms solving a portfolio of test problems taken from the ORLIB. © 2007 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.