Tabu Search Approach Research Articles

An Improved Tabu Search Approach to Vehicle Routing Problem

Vehicle Routing Problems have very important applications in the area of distribution management. VRP is both of theoretical and practical interest (due to its real world applications), which explains the amount of attention given to the VRP by researchers in the past years, and since VRP is an NP-Hard problems. In this paper, we designed and realized a new Tabu Search by introducing mutation and mixed local searching tactics for overcoming the weaknesses of the current TS. Here we are concerned with algorithm strategies and parameters and how they affect the performance of the designed Tabu Search. After comparing the Improved Tabu Search with other algorithms, the excellent performance of the Improved Tabu Search is shown. First, the qualities of solutions of the Improved Tabu Search to VRP are very good whether the size of problems is big or small; second, the Improved Tabu Search algorithm is very stable; finally, the convergent speed is fast, with high calculating efficiency.

A tabu search approach to the truck scheduling problem with multiple docks and time windows

While organizing the cross-docking operations, cross-dock managers are confronted with many decision problems. One of these problems is the truck scheduling problem. This paper presents a truck scheduling problem that is concerned with both inbound and outbound trucks at multiple dock doors. The objective is to minimize the total travel time and the total tardiness. The truck scheduling problem under study is described in detail and a mathematical model of the problem is provided which can be solved to optimality with a mixed integer programming solver, at the expense of a high computation time. Next, a tabu search approach is presented. Experimental results on new benchmark instances indicate that the proposed tabu search is able to find good quality results in a short time period, thus offering potential for integration in cross-docking decision support systems.

Simulated annealing and tabu search approaches for the Corridor Allocation Problem

In the Corridor Allocation Problem, we are given n facilities to be arranged along a corridor. The arrangements on either side of the corridor should start from a common point on the left end of the corridor. In addition, no space is allowed between two adjacent facilities. The problem is motivated by applications such as the arrangement of rooms in office buildings, hospitals, shopping centers or schools. Tabu search and simulated annealing algorithms are presented to minimize the sum of weighted distances between every pair of facilities. The algorithms are evaluated on several instances of different sizes either randomly generated or available in the literature. Both algorithms reached the optimal (when available) or best-known solutions of the instances with n⩽30. For larger instances with size 42⩽n⩽70, the simulated annealing implementation obtained smaller objective values, while requiring a smaller number of function evaluations.

A Tabu Search Approach for the Prize Collecting Traveling Salesman Problem

Abstract The Prize Collecting Traveling Salesman Problem is a generalization of the Traveling Salesman Problem. A salesman collects a prize for each visited city and pays a penalty for each non visited city. The objective is to minimize the sum of the travel costs and penalties, but collecting a minimum pre-established amount of prizes. This problem is here addressed by a simple, but efficient tabu search approach which had improved several upper bounds of the considered instances.

Heuristic algorithms for the capacitated location-routing problem and the multi-depot vehicle routing problem

The Capacitated Location-Routing Problem (CLRP) is a NP-hard problem since it generalizes two well known NP-hard problems: the Capacitated Facility Location Problem (CFLP) and the Capacitated Vehicle Routing Problem (CVRP). The Multi-Depot Vehicle Routing Problem (MDVRP) is known to be a NP-hard since it is a generalization of the well known Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP), arising with one depot. This thesis addresses heuristics algorithms based on the well-know granular search idea introduced by Toth and Vigo (2003) to solve the CLRP and the MDVRP. Extensive computational experiments on benchmark instances for both problems have been performed to determine the effectiveness of the proposed algorithms. This work is organized as follows: Chapter 1 describes a detailed overview and a methodological review of the literature for the the Capacitated Location-Routing Problem (CLRP) and the Multi-Depot Vehicle Routing Problem (MDVRP). Chapter 2 describes a two-phase hybrid heuristic algorithm to solve the CLRP. Chapter 3 shows a computational comparison of heuristic algorithms for the CLRP. Chapter 4 presents a hybrid granular tabu search approach for solving the MDVRP.

A particle swarm optimization algorithm with neighborhood-based mutation for sequence-dependent disassembly line balancing problem

For environmentally conscious and sustainable manufacturing, manufacturers need to incorporate product recovery by designing manufacturing systems to include reverse manufacturing by considering both assembly and disassembly systems. Just as the assembly line is considered the most efficient way to assemble a product, the disassembly line is seen to be the most efficient way to disassemble a product. While having some similarities to assembly, disassembly is not the reverse of the assembly process. The challenge lies in the fact that it possesses unique characteristics. In this paper, we consider a sequence-dependent disassembly line balancing problem (SDDLBP) that is concerned with the assignment of disassembly tasks to a set of ordered disassembly workstations while satisfying the disassembly precedence constraints and optimizing the effectiveness of several measures considering sequence-dependent part removal time increments. SDDLBP is not a trivial problem since it is proven to be NP-complete. Further complications occur by considering multiple objectives including environmental and economic goals that are often contradictory. Therefore, it is essential that an efficient methodology be developed. A new approach based on the particle swarm optimization algorithm with a neighborhood-based mutation operator is proposed to solve the SDDLBP. Case scenarios are considered, and comparisons with ant colony optimization, river formation dynamics, and tabu search approaches are provided to demonstrate the superior functionality of the proposed algorithm.

Parallel tabu search algorithm for the hybrid flow shop problem

The paper deals with the parallel variant of the scheduling algorithm dedicated to the hybrid flow shop problem. The problem derives from practice of automated manufacturing lines, e.g. for printed packages. The overall goal is to design a new algorithm which merges the performance of the best known sequential approach with the efficient exploitation of parallel calculation environments. In order to fulfill the above aim, there are two methods proposed in this paper: the original fast method of parallel calculation of the criterion function and the local neighborhood parallel search method embedded in the tabu search approach. The theoretical analysis, as well as the original implementation, with the use of vector processing instructions SSE2 supported by suitable data organization, are presented below. Numerical properties of the proposed algorithm are empirically verified on the multi-core processor.

First-level tabu search approach for solving the multiple-choice multidimensional knapsack problem

We apply tabu search to the multiple-choice multidimensional knapsack problem. An initial solution involves a simple greedy heuristic. A neighbourhood is generated and a move is selected based on the best feasible neighbouring solution. The search continues for a fixed number of iterations and tabu search structures are used to improve the search process. We study the problem structure of available, benchmark, test problem instances and develop a new, more diverse set of test problem instances whose results better generalise to practice than do results obtained using existing test problems. We report the results of testing our tabu search approach versus existing solution approaches as applied to the available and our new test problem instances. The computational results show that our proposed approach performs comparably or better than the legacy heuristic approaches and clearly demonstrates that test problems affects how well results generalise to practice.

Evolutionary-based channel assignment in multi-radio multi-channel wireless mesh networks for multicast applications

The multi–radio multi–channel wireless mesh networks give rise to considerable improvement in network throughput. Due to the limited number of available orthogonal channels, interference is still a problematic issue in such networks. Besides, multicast is an effective mechanism for delivering data to a group of receivers. Channel assignment for multicast has only been addressed recently. Focusing on this issue, in this paper, we consider the multicast channel assignment problem to minimise the interference among multicast tree nodes. We develop a hybrid particle swarm optimisation (PSO) and tabu search approach for channel assignment. The use of tabu search as a local improvement procedure enables the proposed algorithm to overleap local optimum and show satisfactory performance. The proposed approach is applied to different network configurations, and its performance is compared with LCA, MCM, tabu search–based, and PSO–based algorithms. Simulation results show that the proposed method achieves superior performance in terms of interference.

Nonmonotone hybrid tabu search for inequalities and equalities: an experimental study

The main goal of this paper is to analyze the behavior of nonmonotone hybrid tabu search approaches when solving systems of nonlinear inequalities and equalities through the global optimization of an appropriate merit function. The algorithm combines global and local searches and uses a nonmonotone reduction of the merit function to choose the local search. Relaxing the condition aims to call the local search more often and reduces the overall computational eort. Two variants of a perturbed pattern search method are implemented as local search. An experimental study involving a variety of problems available in the literature is presented. Mathematics Subject Classication: 90C15; 90C56; 90C30

A hybrid Tabu Search approach for the design of a paper recycling network

This paper addresses the design of a paper recycling network including external procurement, in-house recycling of paper, technology selection and selling or disposing of co-products. In contrast to the literature, we consider a combined continuous and discrete facility location problem solved by a hybrid Tabu Search approach to enhance candidate facility locations. We provide rules of thumb regarding the length of the tabu list and suggestions regarding runtime boundaries in cases where pre-evaluations are elaborate. The results based on a real-life application case show the potential savings of in-house paper recycling compared to the solely external procurement of recovered paper.

A particle swarm optimization algorithm for optimal car-call allocation in elevator group control systems

High-rise buildings require the installation of complex elevator group control systems (EGCSs). In vertical transportation, when a passenger makes a hall call by pressing a landing call button installed at the floor and located near the cars of the elevator group, the EGCS must allocate one of the cars of the group to the hall call. We develop a particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm to deal with this car-call allocation problem. The PSO algorithm is compared to other soft computing techniques such as genetic algorithm and tabu search approaches that have been proved as efficient algorithms for this problem. The proposed PSO algorithm was tested in high-rise buildings from 10 to 24 floors, and several car configurations from 2 to 6 cars. Results from trials show that the proposed PSO algorithm results in better average journey times and computational times compared to genetic and tabu search approaches.

A viral system algorithm to optimize the car dispatching in elevator group control systems of tall buildings

Nowadays is very common the presence of tall buildings in the business centres of the main cities of the world. Such buildings require the installation of numerous lifts that are coordinated and managed under a unique control system. Population working in the buildings follows a similar traffic pattern generating situations of traffic congestion. The problem arises when a passenger makes a hall call wishing to travel to another floor of the building. The dispatching of the most suitable car is the optimization problem we are tackling in this paper. We develop a viral system algorithm which is based on a bio-inspired virus infection analogy to deal with it. The viral system algorithm is compared to genetic algorithms, and tabu search approaches that have proven efficiency in the vertical transportation literature. The experiments undertaken in tall buildings from 10 to 24 floors, and several car configurations from 2 to 6 cars, provide valuable results and show how viral system outperforms such soft computing algorithms.

A Tabu Search Approach for the NMR Protein Structure-Based Assignment Problem

Spectroscopy is an experimental technique which exploits the magnetic properties of specific nuclei and enables the study of proteins in solution. The key bottleneck of NMR studies is to map the NMR peaks to corresponding nuclei, also known as the assignment problem. Structure-Based Assignment (SBA) is an approach to solve this computationally challenging problem by using prior information about the protein obtained from a homologous structure. NVR-BIP used the Nuclear Vector Replacement (NVR) framework to model SBA as a binary integer programming problem. In this paper, we prove that this problem is NP-hard and propose a tabu search (TS) algorithm (NVR-TS) equipped with a guided perturbation mechanism to efficiently solve it. NVR-TS uses a quadratic penalty relaxation of NVR-BIP where the violations in the Nuclear Overhauser Effect constraints are penalized in the objective function. Experimental results indicate that our algorithm finds the optimal solution on NVRBIP’s data set which consists of seven proteins with 25 templates (31 to 126 residues). Furthermore, it achieves relatively high assignment accuracies on two additional large proteins, MBP and EIN (348 and 243 residues, respectively), which NVR-BIP failed to solve. The executable and the input files are available for download at http://people.sabanciuniv.edu/catay/NVR-TS/NVR-TS.html.

Iterated tabu search for the circular open dimension problem

This paper investigates the circular open dimension problem (CODP), which consists of packing a set of circles of known radii into a strip of fixed width and unlimited length without overlapping. The objective is to minimize the length of the strip. In this paper, CODP is solved by a series of sub-problems, each corresponding to a fixed strip length. For each sub-problem, an iterated tabu search approach, named ITS, is proposed. ITS starts from a randomly generated solution and attempts to gain improvements by a tabu search procedure. After that, if the obtained solution is not feasible, a perturbation operator is subsequently employed to reconstruct the incumbent solution and an acceptance criterion is implemented to determine whether or not accept the perturbed solution. As a supplementary method, the length of the strip is determined in monotonously decreasing way, with the aid of some post-processing techniques. The search terminates and returns the best found solution after the allowed computation time has been elapsed. Computational experiments based on numerous well-known benchmark instances show that ITS produces quite competitive results, with respect to the best known results, while the computational time remains reasonable for each instance.

A tabu search approach for cell scheduling problem with makespan criterion

Abstract Scheduling problem in a cellular manufacturing system is treated as the group scheduling problem, assuming that intercellular moves can be eliminated by duplicating machines. However, in a typical CMS, duplicating bottleneck machines may be costly and infeasible. This fact limits the applicability of group scheduling. Scheduling problem in the presence of bottleneck machines is termed as cell scheduling. A mixed-integer linear programming model is proposed for the attempted cell scheduling problem and a nested application of tabu search approach is investigated in this paper to solve the problem heuristically. The effectiveness of the proposed nested tabu search (NTS) algorithm is evaluated on 16 problems selected from the literature. Comparison of the results of NTS with SVS-algorithm reveals the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed algorithm.

A hybridized tabu search approach for the minimum weight vertex cover problem

The minimum weight vertex cover problem is a basic combinatorial optimization problem defined as follows. Given an undirected graph and positive weights for all vertices the objective is to determine a subset of the vertices which covers all edges such that the sum of the related cost values is minimized. In this paper we apply a modified reactive tabu search approach for solving the problem. While the initial concept of reactive tabu search involves a random walk we propose to replace this random walk by a controlled simulated annealing. Numerical results are presented outperforming previous metaheuristic approaches in most cases.

A linear programming embedded probabilistic tabu search for the unequal-area facility layout problem with flexible bays

In this paper, a probabilistic tabu search (PTS) approach is proposed to solve the facility layout problem (FLP) with unequal area departments. For the representation, the flexible bay structure (FBS), which is a very common layout in many manufacturing and retail facilities, is used. In this paper, the FBS is relaxed by allowing empty spaces within bays, which results in more flexibility in assigning departments into bays. In addition, departments are allowed to be located more freely within the bays, and they can have different side lengths as long as they are within the bay boundaries and do not overlap. To achieve these goals, department shapes and their locations within bays are determined LP. A PTS approach is developed to search an overall layout structure that describes relative positions of departments for the relaxed-FBS (RFBS). The proposed LP embedded PTS–RFBS approach is used to solve thirteen FLP instances from the literature with varying sizes. The comparative results show that this approach is very promising and able to find new best solutions for several test problems.

Some experiments with a savings heuristic and a tabu search approach for the vehicle routing problem with multiple deliverymen

In this work we consider a variant of the vehicle routing problem that allows the assignment of multiple deliverymen to one or more routes. A practical motivation for this variant arises, for example, in the distribution of beverages in highly dense urban areas, characterized by the difficulty in serving daily requests within regular working day hours with a single deliveryman per vehicle. We present a mathematical model and a savings algorithm in order to generate low cost routes that maximize the number of requests served in compliance with the maximum route time. The impact of the extra deliverymen on the solutions provided by the proposed heuristic is assessed by means of sets of generated examples based on classical instances of literature. It is also presented the results obtained by an adaptation of a tabu search approach from the literature.

A diversified Tabu search approach for the open-pit mine production scheduling problem with metal uncertainty

This paper presents a metaheuristic solution approach based on Tabu search for the open-pit mine production scheduling problem with metal uncertainty. To search the feasible domain more extensively, two different diversification strategies are used to generate several initial solutions to be optimized by the Tabu search procedure. The first diversification strategy exploits a long-term memory of the search history. The second one relies on the variable neighborhood search method. Numerical results on realistic large-scale instances are provided to indicate the efficiency of the solution approach to produce very good solutions in relatively short computational times.