An evolutionary algorithm for an optimization model of edge bundling

Abstract

This paper discusses three edge bundling optimization problems that aim to minimize the total number of bundles of a graph drawing, in conjunction with other aspects, as the main goal. A novel evolutionary algorithm for edge bundling for these problems is described. The algorithm was successfully tested by solving the related problems applied to real-world instances in reasonable computational time. The development and analysis of optimization models have received little attention in the area of edge bundling. However, the reported experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness and the applicability of the proposed evolutionary algorithm to help resolve edge bundling problems by formally defining them as optimization models.