GELS-GA: Hybrid metaheuristic algorithm for solving Multiple Travelling Salesman Problem

Abstract

The Multiple Traveling Salesmen Problem (mTSP) is of the famous and classical problems of research in operations and is accounted as one of the most famous and widely used problems of combinational optimization. Most of the complex problems can be modeled as the mTSP and then be solved. The mTSP is a NP-Complete one; therefore, it is not possible to use the exact algorithms for solving it instead the heuristics methods are often applied for solving such problems. In this paper, a new hybrid algorithm, called GELS-GA, has been presented for solving the mTSP. The utility of GELS-GA is compared with some related works such as GA and ACO and achieves optimality even in highly complex scenarios. Although, the proposed algorithm is simple, it includes an appropriate time of completion and the least traversed distance among existing algorithms.