Problem solving by intelligent water drops

In this paper, we propose a new problem solving algorithm called "intelligent water drops" or IWD algorithm which is based on the processes that happen in the natural river systems and the actions and reactions that take place between water drops in the river and the changes that happen in the environment that river is flowing. It is observed that a river often chooses an optimum path regarding the conditions of its surroundings to get to its ultimate goal which is often a lake or sea. These ideas are embedded into the proposed algorithm for solving the traveling salesman problem or the TSP. The IWD algorithm is tested with artificial and standard TSP problems and the experimental results demonstrate that it is a very promising problem solving algorithm and deserves more research to improve it and/or to adapt it to other engineering problems.