ACS-SOP: A new solution method to the Set Orienteering Problem

Abstract

The Set Orienteering Problem (SOP) is one of the generalizations of the well-known Orienteering Problem (OP), where the nodes are grouped in clusters and each cluster has a profit and if at least one of the nodes in the cluster is seen the profit of it, is collected. The objective is to find a path that maximizes the profit in a limited time. Our proposed method is a simple modification and combination of the Ant Colony System (ACS) for the Generalized Travelling Salesman Problem and the OP and a local search that improves the results obtained from ACS. Being able to improve the solution of 16 available benchmark instances, our method is a promising method for solving the SOP.