Application of the simulated annealing algorithm to the combinatorial optimisation problem with permutation property: An investigation of generation mechanism

Focusing on the generation mechanism of random permutation solutions, this paper investigates the application of the Simulated Annealing (SA) algorithm to the combinatorial optimisation problems with permutation property. Six types of perturbation scheme for generating random permutation solutions are introduced. They are proved to satisfy the asymptotical convergence requirements. The results of experimental evaluations on Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP), Flow-shop Scheduling Problem (FSP), and Quadratic Assignment Problem (QAP) reveal that the eciencies of the perturbation schemes are di€erent in searching a solution space. By adopting a proper perturbation scheme, the SA algorithm has shown to produce very ecient solutions to di€erent combinatorial optimisation problems with permutation property. Ó 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.