Hierarchical Solving Method for Large Scale TSP Problems

Abstract

This paper presents a hierarchical algorithm for solving large-scale traveling salesman problem (TSP), the algorithm first uses clustering algorithms to large-scale TSP problem into a number of small-scale collections of cities, and then put this TSP problem as a generalized traveling salesman problem (GTSP), convert solving large-scale TSP problem into solving GTSP and several small-scale TSP problems. Then all the sub-problems will be solved by ant colony algorithm and At last all the solutions of each sub-problem will be merged into the solution of the large-scale TSP problem by solution of GTSP. Experimental part we uses the traditional ant colony algorithm and new algorithm for solving large-scale TSP problem, numerical simulation results show that the proposed algorithm for large-scale TSP problem has a good effect, compared with the traditional ant colony algorithm, the solving efficiency has been significantly improved.