A multi-agent approach for solving traveling salesman problem
Zhou Tie-jun, Tan Yihong, Xing Lining · Wuhan University Journal of Natural Sciences · 2006
The traveling salesman problem (TSP) is a classical optimization problem and it is one of a class of NP-Problem. This paper presents a new method named multiagent approach based genetic algorithm and ant colony system to solve the TSP. Three kinds of agents with different function were designed in the multi-agent architecture proposed by this paper. The first kind of agent is ant colony optimization agent and its function is generating the new solution continuously. The second kind of agent is selection agent, crossover agent and mutation agent, their function is optimizing the current solutions group. The third kind of agent is fast local searching agent and its function is optimizing the best solution from the beginning of the trial. At the end of this paper, the experimental results have shown that the proposed hybrid approach has good performance with respect to the quality of solution and the speed of computation.