Coordination of Pheromone Deposition Might Solve Time-Constrained Travelling Salesman Problem

Abstract

In this study, we develop two Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) models as new metaheuristic models for solving the time-constrained Travelling Salesman Problem (TSP). Here, the time-constrained TSP means a TSP in which several cities have constraints that the agents have to visit within prescribed time limits. In our ACO models, only agents that achieved tour under certain conditions defined in respective ACO models are allowed to modulate pheromone deposition. The agents in one model are allowed to deposit pheromone only if they achieve a tour satisfying strictly the above purpose. The agents in the other model is allowed to deposit pheromone not only if they achieve a tour satisfying strictly the above purpose, but also if they achieve a tour satisfying the above purpose in some degree. We compare performance of two developed ACO models by focusing on pheromone deposition. We confirm that the later model performs well to some TSP benchmark datasets from TSPLIB in comparison to the former and the traditional AS (Ant System) models. Furthermore, the agent exhibits critical properties; i.e., the system exhibits complex behaviors. These results suggest that the agents perform adaptive travels by coordinating some complex pheromone depositions.