An Improved Ant Colony Optimization Based on an Adaptive Heuristic Factor for the Traveling Salesman Problem

The traveling salesman problem (TSP) is a typical combinatorial optimization problem, which is often applied to sensor placement, path planning, etc. In this paper, an improved ACO algorithm based on an adaptive heuristic factor (AHACO) is proposed to deal with the TSP. In the AHACO, three main impr...

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Main Authors: Pengzhen Du, Ning Liu, Haofeng Zhang, Jianfeng Lu
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Wiley 2021-01-01
Series:Journal of Advanced Transportation
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2021/6642009
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author Pengzhen Du
Ning Liu
Haofeng Zhang
Jianfeng Lu
author_facet Pengzhen Du
Ning Liu
Haofeng Zhang
Jianfeng Lu
author_sort Pengzhen Du
collection DOAJ
description The traveling salesman problem (TSP) is a typical combinatorial optimization problem, which is often applied to sensor placement, path planning, etc. In this paper, an improved ACO algorithm based on an adaptive heuristic factor (AHACO) is proposed to deal with the TSP. In the AHACO, three main improvements are proposed to improve the performance of the algorithm. First, the k-means algorithm is introduced to classify cities. The AHACO provides different movement strategies for different city classes, which improves the diversity of the population and improves the search ability of the algorithm. A modified 2-opt local optimizer is proposed to further tune the solution. Finally, a mechanism to jump out of the local optimum is introduced to avoid the stagnation of the algorithm. The proposed algorithm is tested in numerical experiments using 39 TSP instances, and results shows that the solution quality of the AHACO is 83.33% higher than that of the comparison algorithms on average. For large-scale TSP instances, the algorithm is also far better than the comparison algorithms.
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institution Kabale University
issn 0197-6729
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language English
publishDate 2021-01-01
publisher Wiley
record_format Article
series Journal of Advanced Transportation
spelling doaj-art-d9f410c59cb34d8c8dba7512851dc98f2025-08-20T03:24:25ZengWileyJournal of Advanced Transportation0197-67292042-31952021-01-01202110.1155/2021/66420096642009An Improved Ant Colony Optimization Based on an Adaptive Heuristic Factor for the Traveling Salesman ProblemPengzhen Du0Ning Liu1Haofeng Zhang2Jianfeng Lu3School of Computer Science and Engineering, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing, ChinaNanjing Customs, Nanjing, ChinaSchool of Computer Science and Engineering, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing, ChinaSchool of Computer Science and Engineering, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing, ChinaThe traveling salesman problem (TSP) is a typical combinatorial optimization problem, which is often applied to sensor placement, path planning, etc. In this paper, an improved ACO algorithm based on an adaptive heuristic factor (AHACO) is proposed to deal with the TSP. In the AHACO, three main improvements are proposed to improve the performance of the algorithm. First, the k-means algorithm is introduced to classify cities. The AHACO provides different movement strategies for different city classes, which improves the diversity of the population and improves the search ability of the algorithm. A modified 2-opt local optimizer is proposed to further tune the solution. Finally, a mechanism to jump out of the local optimum is introduced to avoid the stagnation of the algorithm. The proposed algorithm is tested in numerical experiments using 39 TSP instances, and results shows that the solution quality of the AHACO is 83.33% higher than that of the comparison algorithms on average. For large-scale TSP instances, the algorithm is also far better than the comparison algorithms.http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2021/6642009
spellingShingle Pengzhen Du
Ning Liu
Haofeng Zhang
Jianfeng Lu
An Improved Ant Colony Optimization Based on an Adaptive Heuristic Factor for the Traveling Salesman Problem
Journal of Advanced Transportation
title An Improved Ant Colony Optimization Based on an Adaptive Heuristic Factor for the Traveling Salesman Problem
title_full An Improved Ant Colony Optimization Based on an Adaptive Heuristic Factor for the Traveling Salesman Problem
title_fullStr An Improved Ant Colony Optimization Based on an Adaptive Heuristic Factor for the Traveling Salesman Problem
title_full_unstemmed An Improved Ant Colony Optimization Based on an Adaptive Heuristic Factor for the Traveling Salesman Problem
title_short An Improved Ant Colony Optimization Based on an Adaptive Heuristic Factor for the Traveling Salesman Problem
title_sort improved ant colony optimization based on an adaptive heuristic factor for the traveling salesman problem
url http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2021/6642009
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