An efficient solving of the traveling salesman problem: the ant colony system having parameters optimized by the Taguchi method

Owing to its complexity, the traveling salesman problem (TSP) is one of the most intensively studied problems in computational mathematics. The TSP is defined as the provision of minimization of total distance, cost, and duration by visiting the n number of points only once in order to arrive at the starting point. Various heuristic algorithms used in many fields have been developed to solve this problem. In this study, a solution was proposed for the TSP using the ant colony system and parameter optimization was taken from the Taguchi method. The implementation was tested by various data sets in the Traveling Salesman Problem Library and a performance analysis was undertaken. In addition to these, a variance analysis was undertaken in order to identify the effect values of the parameters on the system. Implementation software was developed using the MATLAB program, which has a useful interface and simulation support.