Ant Colony with Stochastic Local Search for the Quadratic Assignment Problem

The existing ant colony optimization (ACO) algorithms for the quadratic assignment problem (QAP) are often combined with two kinds of stochastic local search (SLS) methods: the 2-opt local search and the tabu local search. In this paper, these two SLS methods are respectively improved according to the properties of ACO and QAP. For the 2-opt local search, a new random walk strategy is used to avoid a quick stagnation into local optima. Moreover, a forward-looking strategy is proposed to explore the neighborhood more thoroughly. In the case of tabu local search, a random walk strategy is also employed to avoid getting stuck at local optima. Experimental evaluation of the ACO algorithms combined with the improved local search proposed in this paper are conducted on problems from the well known QAPLIB library. The results demonstrate that each ACO algorithm, combined with its respective improved local search, has a better performance, in terms of the quality of the solution returned, than the ACO algorithm with the original local search techniques. Moreover, we also noticed that the improved methods outperform each other for different classes of problems