FOUNDATIONS AND APPLICATIONS OF TABU SEAR CH METHODS

Among the new general heuristics developed over recent years in the fi eld of combinatorial optimization, the tabu search method (TS) due to Glover has been found to be very promising having been succesfully app lied to several difficult problems. TS is in fact a meta-heuristic whi ch combines a local search procedure with a number of rules and mechan isms that enable it to overcome the obstacle of local optimality while preventing it from cycling. In this paper, we present a description o f the principles underlying the TS method and of its various elements. A review of the main applications of TS to date is also provided.