Review of Multiple Traveling Salesman Model and Its Application

Abstract

As a generalization of the classical traveling salesman problem (TSP), the multiple traveling salesman problem (MTSP) is one of the well-known combinatorial optimization problems. However, as a classical NP hard problem, the problem scale and computational complexity of the multiple traveling salesman problem have very high requirements for the solution method. This paper focuses on the multiple traveling salesman problem. Firstly, several characteristics, objective functions, problem constraints and variants of MTSP model are subdivided. Secondly, it classifies and sorts out the specific methods of several common heuristic algorithms in solving MTSP, and compares the similarities and differences of optimization objectives and solutions under different algorithms, so as to understand the general methods of solving multiple traveling salesman problems among different algorithms more intuitively. With the continuous development of multiple traveling salesman problem, scholars are not satisfied with simply solving mathematical problems, and try to regard many practical problems that meet conditions as multiple traveling salesman problems. This paper summarizes the specific construction methods of MTSP model in the context of practical applications such as logistics distribution, wireless sensor network, emergency rescue and UAV collaborative task planning. From the perspective of application results, using MTSP model to solve practical problems can not only reduce enterprise and individual costs, improve revenue, but also promote the development of this field towards a more efficient and intelligent direction. This paper mainly studies the multiple traveling salesman model and its application, which fills the gap in this research field.

Keywords

• |multiple traveling salesman|path planning|heuristic algorithms|model application