A SELF-ORGANIZING MODEL FOR THE TRAVELING SALESMAN PROBLEM

This work describes a new algorithm, based on a self-organising neural network approach, to solve the Travelling Salesman Problem (TSP). Fir stly, various features of the available adaptive neural network algori thms for TSP are reviewed and a new algorithm is proposed. In order to investigate the performance of the algorithms, a comprehensive empiri cal study has been provided. The simulations, which are conducted on a series of standard data, evaluate the overall performance of this app roach by comparing the results with the best known or the optimal solu tions of the problems. The proposed algorithm shows significant advanc es in both the quality of the solution and computational effort for mo st of the experimental data. The deviation from the optimal solution o f this algorithm was, in the worst case, around 2%. This fact indicate s that the self-organising neural network may be regarded as a promisi ng heuristic approach for optimisation problems.