An ant colony optimization heuristic for solving maximum independent set problems

In this paper, ant colony optimization heuristic is extended for solving maximum independent set (MIS) problems. MIS problems are quite different from the travelling salesman problems (TSP) etc., in which no concept of "path or order" exists in its solutions. Based on such characteristics, the ant colony optimization heuristic is modified in this paper in the following ways: (i) a new computation method for heuristic information is adapted; (ii) the pheromone update rule is augmented; (iii) a complement solution construction process is designed. The simulation shows that the proposed ant colony optimization heuristic is effective and efficient for MIS problems.