Journal of Applied Sciences ›› 2025, Vol. 43 ›› Issue (2): 274-287.doi: 10.3969/j.issn.0255-8297.2025.02.007

• Communication Engineering • Previous Articles    

Hybrid Memetic Algorithm for Soft-Clustered Capacitated Arc Routing Problem

KOU Yawen1, ZHOU Yangming2,3, WANG Zhe1   

  1. 1. School of Information Science and Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai 200237, China;
    2. Data-Driven Management Decision Making Lab, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200030, China;
    3. Sino-US Global Logistics Institute, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200030, China
  • Received:2023-02-15 Published:2025-04-03

Abstract: The soft-clustered capacitated arc routing problem (SoftCluCARP) is an extension of the classical capacitated arc routing problem. Due to its NP-hard nature, solving it is computationally challenging. In this work, we propose an effective hybrid memetic algorithm (HMA) to solve SoftCluCARP. HMA integrates three distinct algorithm modules: a group matching-based crossover to produce promising offspring solutions, a two-stage variable neighborhood search to perform local optimization, and a quality-and-distance population updating to maintain a high-quality population. Experimental results show that HMA is highly competitive compared to the existing exact algorithm in terms of both solution quality and computation time.

Key words: arc routing problem, combinatorial optimization, evolutionary computation, memetic algorithm, variable neighborhood search

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