Ant Colony Optimization Algorithms for Selection and Sequencing Problems

Abstract

This paper is a simple tutorial for researchers interested in ant colony optimization (ACO) in general and max-min ant system (MMAS) in particular. The paper compares the differences in implementing these algorithms to solve sequencing and selection problems. For selection problems, we use the famous knapsack problem (KP) to demonstrate how MMAS can be used, wherease, for the sequencing problem, we use the famous travelling salesman problem (TSP). Results from the literature shows how a MMAS algorithm can outperform other meta-heuristics in solving these two types of problems.