Abstract
Facility-location problems have several applications, such as telecommunications, industrial transportation and distribution. One of the most well-known facility-location problems is the p-median problem. This work addresses an application of the capacitated p-median problem to a real-world problem. We propose a genetic algorithm (GA) to solve the capacitated p-median problem. The proposed GA uses not only conventional genetic operators, but also a new heuristic “hypermutation” operator suggested in this work. The proposed GA is compared with a tabu search algorithm.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
T. Back, D.B. Fogel and T. Michalewicz, Evolutionary Computation 1: Basic Algorithms and Operators (Institute of Physics, Bristol, UK, 2000).
L.B. Booker, Improving search in genetic algorithms, in: Genetic Algorithms and Simulated Annealing, ed. L. Davis (Morgan Kauffmann, Los Altos, CA, 1987) pp. 61–73.
E.S. Correa, Algoritmos geneticos e busca tabu aplicados ao problema das p-medianas, Master dissertation, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Metodos Numericos em Engenharia, Universidade Federal do Parana, Brazil (2001).
C. Dibble and P.J. Densham, Generating interesting alternatives in GIS and SDSS using genetic algorithms, GIS/LIS Symposium, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, 1993.
E. Erkut, B. Bozkaya and J. Zhang, An effective genetic algorithm for the p-median problem, Preprint (2001).
A. Fairley, Comparison of choosing the crossover point in the genetic crossover operation, Preprint, Department of Computer Science, University of Liverpool (1991).
F. Glover, Scatter search and path relinking, Preprint, Graduate School of Business, University of Colorado, Boulder (1999).
F. Glover, Tabu search for the p-median problem, Preprint, University of Colorado, Boulder (1999).
F. Glover and M. Laguna, Tabu Search (Kluwer Academic, University of Colorado, 1997).
D.E. Goldberg, Genetic Algorithms in Search Optimization and Machine Learning (Addison-Wesley, Menlo Park, CA, 1989).
M.F. Goodchild and V. Noronha, Location-Allocation for Small Computers, Monograph No. 8 (University of Iowa, 1983).
C.M. Hosage and M.F. Goodchild, Discrete space location-allocation solutions from genetic algorithms, Ann. Oper. Res. 6 (1986) 35–46.
O. Kariv and S.L. Hakimi, The p-median problems, in: An Algorithmic Approach to Network Location Problems, SIAM J. Appl. Math. 37 (1979) 539–560.
S.F. Mayerle, Um algoritmo genetico para o problema do caixeiro viajante, Preprint, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Engenharia de Produção, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (UFSC), Florianopolis, Santa Catarina, Brazil (1996).
J.A. Moreno-Perez, J.M. Moreno-Vega and N. Mladenovic, Tabu search and simulated annealing in p-median problems, Talk at: The Canadian Operational Research Society Conf., Montreal, 1994.
C. Revelle and R. Swain, Central facilities location, Geographical Analysis 2 (1970) 30–42.
M.B. Teitz and P. Bart, Heuristic concentration: Two-stage solution construction, Oper. Res. Soc. 16 (1968) 955–961.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Correa, E.S., Steiner, M.T.A., Freitas, A.A. et al. A Genetic Algorithm for Solving a Capacitated p-Median Problem. Numerical Algorithms 35, 373–388 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1023/B:NUMA.0000021767.42899.31
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/B:NUMA.0000021767.42899.31