Using 2-Opt based evolution strategy for travelling salesman problem

Harmony search algorithm that matches the (µ+1) evolution strategy, is a heuristic method simulated by the process of music improvisation. In this paper, a harmony search algorithm is directly used for the travelling salesman problem. Instead of conventional selection operators such as roulette wheel, the transformation of real number values of harmony search algorithm to order index of vertex representation and improvement of solutions are obtained by using the 2-Opt local search algorithm. Then, the obtained algorithm is tested on two different parameter groups of TSPLIB. The proposed method is compared with classical 2-Opt which randomly started at each step and best known solutions of test instances from TSPLIB. It is seen that the proposed algorithm offers valuable solutions.