Scatter Search

Abstract

Scatter search (SS) is a population-based metaheuristic introduced in the late 1970s as a heuristic for integer programming problems. The main concepts and principles are based on combining solution vectors, making limited use of randomization. Its flexibility in the development of the implementation has been shown very effective in the resolution of hard optimization problems, leading to high-quality solutions. This chapter provides the framework of the SS methodology, from the broader and more general case to the particular one of the diversity and dispersion problems. Specifically, two different SS designs have been described in detailed to solve a specific dispersion problem, the capacitated dispersion problem.