Multi-Point Combinatorial Optimization Method with Distance Based Interaction

This paper proposes a multi-point combinatorial optimization method based on Proximate Optimality Principle (POP), which method has several advantages for solving large-scale combinatorial optimization problems. The proposed algorithm uses not only the distance between search points but also the interaction among search points in order to utilize POP in several types of combinatorial optimization problems. The proposed algorithm is applied to several typical combinatorial optimization problems, a knapsack problem, a traveling salesman problem, and a flow shop scheduling problem, in order to verify the performance of the proposed algorithm. The simulation results indicate that the proposed method has higher optimality than the conventional combinatorial optimization methods.