Title: A hybrid algorithm for uncapacitated facility location problems

Authors: T.G. Pradeepmon, Brijesh Paul

Addresses: Department of Mechanical Engineering, M.A. College of Engineering, Kothamangalam 686 666, Kerala, India. ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, M.A. College of Engineering, Kothamangalam 686 666, Kerala, India

Abstract: Location problems are NP-hard combinatorial optimisation problems which are widely studied. This paper presents a hybrid algorithm to solve the Uncapacitated Facility Location (UFL) problems. Denoted as hGA-PSO, this method combines the concepts of Genetic Algorithm (GA) and Particle Swarm Optimisation (PSO) Algorithm, and creates individuals not only by using operations used in GA, but also by mechanisms of PSO. The proposed algorithm is applied to several benchmark suites collected from OR-library. These studies demonstrate the ability of the hybrid GA-PSO approach to give good solutions for the UFL problems. The performance of the algorithm is also compared with other approaches available in the literature.

Keywords: hybrid algorithms; genetic algorithms; PSO; particle swarm optimisation; UFL; uncapacitated facility location; metaheuristics.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSEM.2011.039433

International Journal of Services, Economics and Management, 2011 Vol.3 No.2, pp.197 - 206

Published online: 09 May 2015 *

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