A real-coded chicken swarm optimisation algorithm for solving travelling salesman problem

Abstract

Chicken swarm optimisation (CSO) algorithm, which is inspired by the hierarchal structure and the behaviours of the chicken flock, was first presented for continuous optimisation problems. The paper proposes a real-coded scheme of CSO algorithm (RCCSO) to solve travelling salesman problem (TSP). In the RCCSO algorithm, each position vector represents a visiting sequence of cities. In a position vector, each dimension represents a city and is coded with a real number. The integer part of the real number represents the index number of the city, and the decimal part denotes the visiting order of the city. Using this coding scheme, the discrete neighbourhood of TSP is converted into a continuous neighbourhood. Two repair operators, relocation operator and replacement operator, are designed to guarantee that position vector is always a valid solution of TSP. Finally, the RCCSO algorithm is compared with many different types of intelligent optimisation algorithms. Experimental results prove that the RCCSO algorithm can find the shortest path more quickly and effectively on most TSP datasets.