Skip to main content
Log in

The effective application of a new approach to the generalized orienteering problem

  • Published:
Journal of Heuristics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The Orienteering Problem (OP) is an important problem in network optimization in which each city in a network is assigned a score and a maximum-score path from a designated start city to a designated end city is sought that is shorter than a pre-specified length limit. The Generalized Orienteering Problem (GOP) is a generalized version of the OP in which each city is assigned a number of scores for different attributes and the overall function to optimize is a function of these attribute scores. In this paper, the function used was a non-linear combination of attribute scores, making the problem difficult to solve. The GOP has a number of applications, largely in the field of routing. We designed a two-parameter iterative algorithm for the GOP, and computational experiments suggest that this algorithm performs as well as or better than other heuristics for the GOP in terms of solution quality while running faster. Further computational experiments suggest that our algorithm also outperforms the leading algorithm for solving the OP in terms of solution quality while maintaining a comparable solution speed.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Chao, I.-M.: Algorithms and solutions to multi-level vehicle routing problems. Ph.D. thesis, University of Maryland, College Park, MD (1993)

  • Chao, I.-M., Golden, B.L., Wasil, E.A.: A fast and effective heuristic for the orienteering problem. Eur. J. Oper. Res. 88(3), 475–489 (1996)

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Chekuri, C., Pál, M.: A recursive greedy algorithm for walks in directed graphs. In: Proceedings of the 2005 46th Annual IEEE Symposium on Foundations of Computer Science, pp. 245–253. IEEE Computer Society, Los Alamitos (2005)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Dongarra, J.: Performance of various computers using standard linear equations software. Technical report, University of Tennessee (2008)

  • Fischetti, M., Salazar-González, J.J., Toth, P.: Solving the orienteering problem through branch-and-cut. INFORMS J. Comput. 10(2), 133–148 (1998)

    Article  MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  • Geem, Z.W., Tseng, C.-L., Park, Y.: Harmony search for generalized orienteering problem: Best touring in China. In: Advances in Natural Computation. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol. 3612, pp. 741–750. Springer, Berlin/Heidelberg (2005)

    Google Scholar 

  • Gendreau, M., Laporte, G., Sémét, F.: A tabu search heuristic for the undirected selective travelling salesman problem. Eur. J. Oper. Res. 106(2–3), 539–545 (1998)

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Golden, B.L., Levy, L.J., Vohra, R.: The orienteering problem. Nav. Res. Logist. 34(3), 307–318 (1987)

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Ramesh, R., Brown, K.M.: An efficient four-phase heuristic for the generalized orienteering problem. Comput. Oper. Res. 18(2), 151–165 (1991)

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  • Reinelt, G.: TSPLIB—a traveling salesman problem library. ORSA J. Comput. 3(4), 376–384 (1991)

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Tsiligirides, T.: Heuristic methods applied to orienteering. J. Oper. Res. Soc. 35(9), 797–809 (1984)

    Google Scholar 

  • Wang, Q., Sun, X., Golden, B.L.: Using artificial neural networks to solve generalized orienteering problems. In: Dagli, C., Akay, M., Chen, C., Fernández, B. (eds.) Intelligent Engineering Systems Through Artificial Neural Networks, vol. 6, pp. 1063–1068. ASME Press, New York (1996)

    Google Scholar 

  • Wang, X., Golden, B.L., Wasil, E.A.: Using a genetic algorithm to solve the generalized orienteering problem. In: Golden, B.L., Raghavan, S., Wasil, E.A. (eds.) The Vehicle Routing Problem: Latest Advances and New Challenges, pp. 263–274. Springer, New York (2008)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Bruce Golden.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Silberholz, J., Golden, B. The effective application of a new approach to the generalized orienteering problem. J Heuristics 16, 393–415 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10732-009-9104-8

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10732-009-9104-8

Keywords

Navigation