Abstract
This paper presents a novel approach based on the ant system algorithm for solving discrete optimization problems. The proposed method is based on path construction, path improvement techniques, and the footprint mechanism. Some information about the optimization problem and collective intelligence is used in order to create solutions in the path construction phase. In the path improvement phase, neighborhood operations are applied to the solution, which is the best of the population and is obtained from the path construction phase. The collective intelligence in the path construction phase is based on a footprint mechanism, and more footprints on the arc improve the selection chance of this arc. A selection probability is also balanced by using information about the problem (e.g., the distance between nodes for a traveling salesman problem). The performance of the proposed method has been investigated on 25 traveling salesman problems and compared with state-of-the-art algorithms. The experimental comparisons show that the proposed method produced comparable results for the problems dealt with in this study.