A memetic ant colony optimization algorithm for the dynamic travelling salesman problem

Ant colony optimization (ACO) has been successfully applied for combinatorial optimization problems, e.g., the travelling salesman problem (TSP), under stationary environments. In this paper, we consider the dynamic TSP (DTSP), where cities are replaced by new ones during the execution of the algorithm. Under such environments, traditional ACO algorithms face a serious challenge: once they converge, they cannot adapt efficiently to environmental changes. To improve the performance of ACO on the DTSP, we investigate a hybridized ACO with local search (LS), called Memetic ACO (M-ACO) algorithm, which is based on the population-based ACO (P-ACO) framework and an adaptive inver-over operator, to solve the DTSP. Moreover, to address premature convergence, we introduce random immigrants to the population of M-ACO when identical ants are stored. The simulation experiments on a series of dynamic environments generated from a set of benchmark TSP instances show that LS is beneficial for ACO algorithms when applied on the DTSP, since it achieves better performance than other traditional ACO and P-ACO algorithms.     

Runtime Analysis of an Ant Colony Optimization Algorithm for TSP Instances

Ant colony optimization (ACO) is a relatively new random heuristic approach for solving optimization problems. The main application of the ACO algorithm lies in the field of combinatorial optimization, and the traveling salesman problem (TSP) is the first benchmark problem to which the ACO algorithm has been applied. However, relatively few results on the runtime analysis of the ACO on the TSP are available. This paper presents the first rigorous analysis of a simple ACO algorithm called (1 + 1) MMAA (Max-Min ant algorithm) on the TSP. The expected runtime bounds for (1 + 1) MMAA on two TSP instances of complete and non-complete graphs are obtained. The influence of the parameters controlling the relative importance of pheromone trail versus visibility is also analyzed, and their choice is shown to have an impact on the expected runtime.     

A comparative study of the improvement of performance using a PSO modified by ACO applied to TSP

Swarm-inspired optimization has become very popular in recent years. Particle swarm optimization (PSO) and Ant colony optimization (ACO) algorithms have attracted the interest of researchers due to their simplicity, effectiveness and efficiency in solving complex optimization problems. Both ACO and PSO were successfully applied for solving the traveling salesman problem (TSP). Performance of the conventional PSO algorithm for small problems with moderate dimensions and search space is very satisfactory. As the search, space gets more complex, conventional approaches tend to offer poor solutions. This paper presents a novel approach by introducing a PSO, which is modified by the ACO algorithm to improve the performance. The new hybrid method (PSO–ACO) is validated using the TSP benchmarks and the empirical results considering the completion time and the best length, illustrate that the proposed method is efficient.     

一种快速求解旅行商问题的蚁群算法

蚁群优化是一种元启发式的随机搜索技术,是目前解决组合优化问题最有效的工具之一.将信息素更新和随机搜索机制的改进相结合,提出一种快速求解旅行商问题的蚁群算法.首先给出了一种新的信息素增量模型,以体现蚂蚁在不同路径上行走时所产生的信息素差异;然后以蚂蚁经过的路径(直线段)作为信息素扩散浓度场的信源,改进了信息素扩散模型,强化了蚂蚁间的协作和交流;最后采用较低复杂度的变异策略对迭代的结果进行优化.在大量通用数据集上的实验表明,该算法不仅能获得更好的最优解,而且收敛速度有显著的提高.     

Population declining ant colony optimization algorithm and its applications

Population declining ant colony optimization (PDACO) algorithm is proposed and applied to the traveling salesman problem (TSP) and multiuser detection in this paper. Ant colony optimization (ACO) algorithms have already successfully been used in combinatorial optimization, however, as the pheromone accumulates, we may not get a global optimum because it stops searching early. PDACO can enlarge searching range through increasing the initial population of the ant colony, and the population declines in successive iterations. So, the performance of PDACO is superior with the same computational complexity. PDACO is applied to TSP and multiuser detection. Via computer simulations it is shown that PDACO has better performance in solving these two problems than ACO algorithms.     

An Application on Mobile Devices with Android and IOS Operating Systems Using Google Maps APIs for the Traveling Salesman Problem

Nowadays, the Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP) is one of the most studied combinational optimization problems that researchers study. Although it is easy to define, its solution is hard. Therefore, it is one of the NP-hard problems in the research literature. It can be used to solve real-life problems such as route planning and scheduling, and transportation and logistics applications. In this study, for TSP, an interface that can run on mobile devices using Android and IOS operating systems is developed. Real-world data are used online by the interface. Locations, and the distance between them, are obtained instantly by Google Maps APIs. Genetic (GA) and ant colony optimization (ACO) algorithms are used to solve the TSP. Furthermore, users have also been allowed to conduct trials for different parameter values. The application developed has been tested on two different datasets. The test results show that for the determination of the optimum route, the ACO algorithm is better than the GA. However, when considering the run times, GA works much faster than ACO.     

一类自适应蚁群算法及其收敛性分析

为了克服蚁群算法易陷入局部最小点的缺点,同时提高算法的收敛速度,提出一类自适应蚁群算法.该算法利用自适应改变信息激素的挥发系数改善传统蚁群算法的全局搜索能力和收敛速度.通过马尔科夫过程对算法的全局收敛性进行分析,得出该类蚁群算法全局收敛性条件.并构造出该类算法的一种信息激素更新策略,证明了这种算法全局收敛性.利用提出的算法对典型的TSP问题进行仿真研究,结果表明比典型蚁群算法在收敛速度和解的性能上都有较大改善.     

A novel two-stage hybrid swarm intelligence optimization algorithm and application

This paper presents a novel two-stage hybrid swarm intelligence optimization algorithm called GA–PSO–ACO algorithm that combines the evolution ideas of the genetic algorithms, particle swarm optimization and ant colony optimization based on the compensation for solving the traveling salesman problem. In the proposed hybrid algorithm, the whole process is divided into two stages. In the first stage, we make use of the randomicity, rapidity and wholeness of the genetic algorithms and particle swarm optimization to obtain a series of sub-optimal solutions (rough searching) to adjust the initial allocation of pheromone in the ACO. In the second stage, we make use of these advantages of the parallel, positive feedback and high accuracy of solution to implement solving of whole problem (detailed searching). To verify the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed hybrid algorithm, various scale benchmark problems from TSPLIB are tested to demonstrate the potential of the proposed two-stage hybrid swarm intelligence optimization algorithm. The simulation examples demonstrate that the GA–PSO–ACO algorithm can greatly improve the computing efficiency for solving the TSP and outperforms the Tabu Search, genetic algorithms, particle swarm optimization, ant colony optimization, PS–ACO and other methods in solution quality. And the experimental results demonstrate that convergence is faster and better when the scale of TSP increases.     

增强型的蚁群优化算法

旅行商问题是一个NP-Hard组合优化问题。根据蚁群优化算法和旅行商问题的特点,论文提出了对蚁群中具有优质解的蚂蚁个体所走路径上的信息素强度进行增强的方法,并同其他的优化算法进行了比较,仿真结果表明,对具有全局和局部最优解的个体所走路径上的信息素强度进行增强的蚁群优化算法比标准的蚁群优化算法和其他优化算法在执行效率和稳定性上要高。     

求解旅行商问题的多尺度量子自由粒子优化算法

针对目前元启发式算法在求解组合优化问题中的旅行商问题(TSP)时求解缓慢的问题,受量子理论中波函数的启发提出一种多尺度自适应的量子自由粒子优化算法。首先,在可行域中随机初始化表示城市序列的粒子,作为初始的搜索中心;然后,以每个粒子为中心进行当前尺度下的均匀分布函数的采样,并交换采样位置上的城市编号产生新解;最后,根据新解相较上一次迭代中最优解的优劣进行搜索尺度的自适应调整,并在不同的尺度下进行迭代搜索直到满足算法结束条件。将该算法和混合粒子群优化(HPSO)算法、模拟退火(SA)算法、遗传算法(GA)和蚁群优化算法应用在TSP上进行性能测试,实验结果表明自由粒子模型算法适合求解组合优化问题,在TSP数据集上相比目前较优算法在求解速度上平均提升50%以上。     

一种改进的蚁群算法在TSP问题中的应用研究

蚁群算法是近几年发展起来的一种新型的拟生态启发式算法,它已经被成功地应用在旅行商(TSP)问题上.由于基本蚁群算法存在过早陷入局部最优解和收敛性较差等缺点,文中对基本蚁群算法在基于蚁群系统的基础上进行了改进,在信息素的更新和解的搜索过程中更多地关注了局部最优解的信息,以使算法尽可能地跳出局部最优,并且改进后的算法对一些关键参数更容易控制.多次实验表明改进的蚁群算法在解决TSP问题上与基本蚁群算法相比有较好的寻优能力和收敛能力.这种算法可以应用在其它组合优化问题上,有一定的工程应用价值.     

三种现代优化算法的比较研究

现代最优化算法比较常见的有遗传算法、蚁群算法、微粒群算法、人工鱼群算法等。本文主要对前三种算法优化性能进行比较研究。首先介绍了三种算法的基本原理,然后总结了各自的优缺点并从原理和参数两个方面对三种算法进行了对比分析,最后以经典TSP问题为例进行了仿真研究并得出了一些指导算法适用范围的结论。     

A modified ant system to achieve better balance between intensification and diversification for the traveling salesman problem

This paper presents a new variant of Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) for the Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP). ACO has been successfully used in many combinatorial optimization problems. However, ACO has a problem in reaching the global optimal solutions for TSPs, and the algorithmic performance of ACO tends to deteriorate significantly as the problem size increases. In the proposed modification, adaptive tour construction and pheromone updating strategies are embedded into the conventional Ant System (AS), to achieve better balance between intensification and diversification in the search process. The performance of the proposed algorithm is tested on randomly generated data and well-known existing data. The computational results indicate the proposed modification is effective and efficient for the TSP and competitive with Ant Colony System (ACS), Max-Min Ant System (MMAS), and Artificial Bee Colony (ABC) Meta-Heuristic.     

A Pheromone-Rate-Based Analysis on the Convergence Time of ACO Algorithm

Ant colony optimization (ACO) has widely been applied to solve combinatorial optimization problems in recent years. There are few studies, however, on its convergence time, which reflects how many iteration times ACO algorithms spend in converging to the optimal solution. Based on the absorbing Markov chain model, we analyze the ACO convergence time in this paper. First, we present a general result for the estimation of convergence time to reveal the relationship between convergence time and pheromone rate. This general result is then extended to a two-step analysis of the convergence time, which includes the following: 1) the iteration time that the pheromone rate spends on reaching the objective value and 2) the convergence time that is calculated with the objective pheromone rate in expectation. Furthermore, four brief ACO algorithms are investigated by using the proposed theoretical results as case studies. Finally, the conclusions of the case studies that the pheromone rate and its deviation determine the expected convergence time are numerically verified with the experiment results of four one-ant ACO algorithms and four ten-ant ACO algorithms.      

A fast two-stage ACO algorithm for robotic path planning

Ant colony optimization (ACO) algorithms are often used in robotic path planning; however, the algorithms have two inherent problems. On one hand, the distance elicitation function and transfer function are usually used to improve the ACO algorithms, whereas, the two indexes often fail to balance between algorithm efficiency and optimization effect; On the other hand, the algorithms are heavily affected by environmental complexity. Based on the scent pervasion principle, a fast two-stage ACO algorithm is proposed in this paper, which overcomes the inherent problems of traditional ACO algorithms. The basic idea is to split the heuristic search into two stages: preprocess stage and path planning stage. In the preprocess stage, the scent information is broadcasted to the whole map and then ants do path planning under the direction of scent information. The algorithm is tested in maps of various complexities and compared with different algorithms. The results show the good performance and convergence speed of the proposed algorithm, even the high grid resolution does not affect the quality of the path found.     

蚁群算法的收敛速度分析

蚁群算法(ACO)作为一类新型的机器学习技术,已经广泛用于组合优化问题的求解,同时也应用于工业工程的优化设计.相对于遗传算法(GA),蚁群算法的理论研究在国内外均起步较晚,特别是收敛速度的分析理论是该领域急待解决的第一大公开问题.文中的研究内容主要是针对这一公开问题而开展的.根据蚁群算法的特性,该研究基于吸收态Markov过程的数学模型,提出了蚁群算法的收敛速度分析理论.作者给出了估算蚁群算法期望收敛时间的几个理论方法,以分析蚁群算法的收敛速度,并结合著名的ACS算法作了具体的案例研究.基于该文提出的收敛速度分析理论,作者还提出ACO-难和ACO-易两类问题的界定方法;最后,利用ACS算法求解TSP问题的实验数据,验证了文中提出的分析结论,得出了初步的算法设计指导原则.     

基于聚类的蚂蚁优化算法

尽管蚁群优化算法在优化计算中有大量应用，但在大规模优化问题中蚁群算法仍存在搜索时间过长、易于停滞现象等等应用瓶颈。基于这些原因，根据经济学组织交易成本理论，文中提出一种新的通过聚类来降低优化问题规模的蚁群优化算法：基于聚类的蚂蚁优化算法，并从理论上表明比其他蚁群优化算法提高了收敛速度并延迟停滞现象。     

Ant colony optimization with immigrants schemes for the dynamic travelling salesman problem with traffic factors

Traditional ant colony optimization (ACO) algorithms have difficulty in addressing dynamic optimization problems (DOPs). This is because once the algorithm converges to a solution and a dynamic change occurs, it is difficult for the population to adapt to a new environment since high levels of pheromone will be generated to a single trail and force the ants to follow it even after a dynamic change. A good solution to address this problem is to increase the diversity via transferring knowledge from previous environments to the pheromone trails using immigrants schemes. In this paper, an ACO framework for dynamic environments is proposed where different immigrants schemes, including random immigrants, elitism-based immigrants, and memory-based immigrants, are integrated into ACO algorithms for solving DOPs. From this framework, three ACO algorithms, where immigrant ants are generated using the aforementioned immigrants schemes and replace existing ants in the current population, are proposed and investigated. Moreover, two novel types of dynamic travelling salesman problems (DTSPs) with traffic factors, i.e., under random and cyclic dynamic environments, are proposed for the experimental study. The experimental results based on different DTSP test cases show that each proposed algorithm performs well on different environmental cases and that the proposed algorithms outperform several other peer ACO algorithms.     

基于选路优化的改进蚁群算法

蚁群算法在处理大规模优化问题时效率很低。为此对蚁群算法提出了基于选路优化的两点改进:(1)引入选路优化策略,减少了算法中蚁群的选路次数,显著提高了算法的执行效率。(2)在选路操作中,只根据当前城市的前C个距离最近的且未经过城市为候选城市计算选择概率,从而减少单个蚂蚁选路的计算量。尤其对于以往较难处理的大规模TSP问题,改进算法在执行效率上有明显的优势。模拟实验结果表明改进算法较之基本蚁群算法在收敛速度有明显提高。     

基于多粒度的旅行商问题描述及其蚁群优化算法

针对蚁群算法在求解大规模旅行商问题(Traveling Salesman Problems,TSP)中时间性能方面的不足,提出了一种快速的求解算法.首先,从TSP问题描述入手,给出了一种新的多粒度的问题描述模型;然后,基于该模型,设计了包括基于密度聚类的粒度划分、粗粒度的蚁群寻优、粒度间的连接、细粒度的蚁群寻优、粒度间可行解的合成以及循环分段优化6个阶段在内的求解算法.算法的复杂度分析及在中、大规模TSP问题上的实验表明:本算法的时间性能不仅比经典的蚁群算法有显著的提高,而且与近年来的一些同类算法相比也具有一定的优势,显示了快速求解大规模TSP问题的能力.