A Comparative Study of Adaptive Crossover Operators For Genetic Algorithms To Resolve The Traveling Salesman Problem

International Journal of Computer Applications (0975 8887)
Volume 31 No.11, October 2011
A Comparative Study of Adaptive Crossover

Operators for Genetic Algorithms to Resolve the
Traveling Salesman Problem
ABDOUN Otman
ABOUCHABAKA Jaafar
LaRIT, Department of Computer Science

IBN Tofail University, Kenitra, Morocco
LaRIT, Department of Computer Science

IBN Tofail University, Kenitra, Morocco
ABSTRACT
Genetic algorithm includes some parameters that should be
adjusting so that the algorithm can provide positive results.
Crossover operators play very important role by constructing
competitive Genetic Algorithms (GAs). In this paper, the basic
conceptual features and specific characteristics of various
crossover operators in the context of the Traveling Salesman
Problem (TSP) are discussed. The results of experimental
comparison of more than six different crossover operators for
the TSP are presented. The experiment results show that OX
operator enables to achieve a better solutions than other
operators tested.
Keywords
Travelers Salesman Problem, Genetic Algorithm, NP-Hard
Problem, Crossover Operator, probability of crossover, Genetic
Algorithm,
1. INTRODUCTION
This section introduces the current scientific understanding of
the natural selection process with the purpose of gaining an
insight into the construction, application, and terminology of
genetic algorithms. Natural selection evolution- is discussed in
many texts and treatises, and one of its first proponents, Charles
Darwin.His theory of evolution was based on four primary
premises [7]. First, like begets like; equivalently, an offspring
has many of the characteristics of its parents. This premise
implies that the population is stable. Second, there are variations
in characteristics between individuals that can be passed from
one generation to the next. The third premise is that only a small
percentage of the offspring produced survive to adulthood.
Finally, which of the offspring survive depends on their
inherited characteristics. These premises combine to produce the
theory of natural selection. In modern evolutionary theory an
understanding of genetics adds impetus to the explanation of the
stages of natural selection.
Another set of biologically-inspired methods are Genetic
Algorithms (GAs). They derive their inspiration from combining
the concept of genetic recombination with the theory of
evolution and survival of the fittest members of a population [5].
Starting from a random set of candidate parameters, the learning
process devises better and better approximations to the optimal
parameters. The GA is primarily a search and optimization
technique. One can, however, pose nearly any practical problem
as one of optimization, including many environmental modeling
problems. To configure a problem for GA solution requires that
the modeler not only choose the representation methodology,

but also the cost function that judges the models soundness.
The genetic algorithm is a one of the family of evolutionary
algorithms. The population of a genetic algorithm (GA) evolves
by using genetic operators inspired by the evolutionary in
biology, "The survival is the individual most suitable to the
environment". Darwin discovered that species evolution based
on two components: the selection and reproduction. The
selection provides a reproduction of the strongest and more
robust individuals, while the reproduction is a phase in which
the evolution run.
Genetic algorithms are powerful methods of optimization used
successfully in different problems. Their performance is
depending on the encoding scheme and the choice of genetic
operators especially, the selection, crossover and mutation
operators. A variety of these latest operators have been
suggested in the previous researches. In particular, several
crossover operators have been developed and adapted to the
permutation presentations that can be used in a large variety of
combinatorial optimization problems. In this area, a typical
example of the most studied problems is the Traveling Salesman
Problem (TSP).
The traveling salesman problem (TSP) is a classical problem of
combinatorial optimization of Operations Researchs area. The
purpose is to find a minimum total cost Hamiltonian cycle [22].
There are several practical uses for this problem, such as vehicle
routing (with the additional constraints of vehicles route, such
as capacitys vehicles) [23] and drilling problems [24].
The TSP has received considerable attention over the last two
decades and various approaches are proposed to solve the
problem, such as branch-and-bound [28], cutting planes [35], 2opt [33], simulated annealing [31], neural network [1,37], and
tabu search [9, 29]. Some of these methods are exact algorithms,
while the others are near-optimal or approximate algorithms.
The exact algorithms include the integer linear programming
approaches with additional linear constraints to eliminate
infeasible subtours [25, 27, 30, 34, 36,36]. On the other hand,
network models yield appropriate methods that are flexible
enough to include the precedence constraints [28,32]. More
recently, genetic algorithm (GA) approaches are successfully
implemented to the TSP [26]. Potvin [35] presents survey of GA
approaches for the general TSP.
These researches have provided the birth of several genetic
mechanisms in particular, the selection, crossover and the
49

mutation operators. In order to resolve the TSP problem, we
propose in this paper to study empirically the impact affiliation
of the different crossover operators.Finally we analyze the
experimental results.
The mathematical formulation of TSP problem expresses by:
2. TRAVELING SALESMAN PROBLEM
Which T[i] is a permutation on the set {1, 2, ,V}.
The Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP) is one of the most

intensively studied problems in computational mathematics.In
the TSP problem, which is closely related to the Hamiltonian
cycle problem, a salesman must visit n cities. Modeling the
problem as a complete graph with n vertices, we can say that the
salesman wishes to make a tour, or Hamiltonian cycle, visiting
each city exactly once and finishing at the city he starts from [1].
Given the cost of travel between all cities, how should he plan
his itinerary for minimum total cost of the entire tour?
As a concrete example, consider a delivery company with a
central depot. Each day, it loads up each delivery truck at the
depot and sends it around to deliver goods to several addresses.
At the end of the day, each truck must end up back at the
depotso that it is ready to be loaded for the next day. To reduce
costs, the company wants to select an order of delivery stops that
yields the lowest overall distance traveled by each truck. This
problem is the well-known Traveling Salesman Problem, andit
is NP-complete [1]. It has no known efficient algorithm. Under
certain assumptions, however, we know of efficient algorithms
that give an overall distance which is not too far above the
smallest possible.
The search space for the TSP is a set of permutations of n cities.
Any single permutation of n cities yields a solution (which is a
complete tour of n cities). The optimal solution is a permutation
which yields the minimum cost of the tour. The size of the
search space is n!.
In other words, a TSP of size V is defined by a set of points v=
{v1, v2, ,vn} which vi a city marked by coordinates vi.x and
vi.y where we define a metric distance function f as in (1). A
solution of TSP problem is a form of scheduling
T=(T[1],T[2],,T[n], T[1]) which T[i] is a permutation on
the set {1, 2, ,V}. The evaluation function calculates the
adaptation of each solution of the problem by the following
formula:
1
. +1 .
+ . +1 .
=1
+ ( . 1
. )2
+ ( . 1
. )2 (1)
Where n is the number of cities.

If d, a distance matrix, is added to the TSP problem, and d(i,j) a
distance between the city vi and vj (2), hence the cost function f
(1) can be expressed as follows:
d(i , j) =
() =
. .
+ . . (2)
1
=1 d(T[i] , T[i +
{ , = 1 , 2 , ,
(4)
The travelling salesman problem (TSP) is an NP-hard problem

in combinatorial optimization studied in operations research and
theoretical computer science [5].
Theorem: The subset-sum problem is NP-complete [3].
Proof :We first show that TSP belongs to NP. Given an instance
of the problem, we use as a certificate the sequence of n vertices
in the tour. The verification algorithm checks that this sequence
contains each vertex exactly once, sums up the edge costs, and
checks whether the sum is at most k. This process can certainly
be done in polynomial time.
To prove that TSP is NP-hard, we show that HAM-CYCLE P
TSP. Let G =(V, E)be an instance of HAM-CYCLE. We
construct an instance of TSP asfollows. We form the complete
graph G = (V, E), , whereE={(i,j) : i, j V andi j }, and we
define the cost function c by
, =
0 ,
(5)
1 ,
(Note that because Gis undirected, it has no self-loops, and so

c(v, v)=1 for all vertices vV.) The instance of TSP is then (G,
c, 0), which we can easily create in polynomial time.
We now show that graph Ghas a Hamiltonian cycle if and only
if graphGhas atour of cost at most0. Suppose that graphGhas a
Hamiltonian cycleh. Each edgeinhbelongs toE and thus has
cost0 in G. Thus,his a tour inGwith cost0.
Conversely, suppose that graphGhas a tourhof cost at most0.
Since the costsof the edges inEare0 and1, the cost of tourhis
exactly0and each edge on thetour must have cost0.
Therefore,hcontains only edges inE. We conclude thathis a
Hamiltonian cycle in graphG.
A quick calculation shows that the complexity is O(n!) which n
is the number of cities (Table. 1).
Table 1. Number of possibilities and calculation time by the
number of cities
Number of
cities
5
10
15
20
25
Number of
possibilities
12
181440
43 billions
60 E+15
310 E+21
Computation time
12 s
0,18 ms
12 hours
1928 years
9,8 billions of years
To solve the TSP, there are algorithms in the literature

deterministic (exact) and approximation algorithms (heuristics).
1]) + d(T[n], T[1]) (3)
50

2.1 Deterministic algorithm
3. GENETIC ALGORITHM
During the last decades, several algorithms emerged to

approximate the optimal solution: nearest neighbor, greedy
algorithm, nearest insertion, farthest insertion, double minimum
spanning tree, strip, space-filling curve and Karp, Litke and
Christofides algorithm, etc. (some of these algorithms assume
that the cities correspond to points in the plane under some
standard metric).
A genetic algorithm (GA) is one such versatile optimization

method. Figure 1 shows the optimization process of a GA the
two primary operations are mating and mutation. The GA
combines the best of the last generation through mating, in
which parameter values are exchanged between parents to form
offspring. Some of the parameters mutate [6]. The objective
function then judges the fitness of the new sets of parameters
and the algorithm iterates until it converges. With these two
operators, the GA is able to explore the full cost surface in order
to avoid falling into local minima. At the same time, it exploits
the best features of the last generation to converge to
increasingly better parameter sets.
The TSP can be modeled in a linear programming problem

under constraints, as follows:
We associate to each city a number between 1 and V. For each
pair of cities (i, j), we define cij the transition cost from city i to
the city j, and the binary variable:
=
1
(6)
So the TSP problem can be formulated as a problem of integer

linear programming, as follows:
=1
1
=1
Initialize
population
Evaluate
Cost
Solution
Mutation
Selection
(7)
= 2, = 1,2, , (8)

Yes
No
Crossover
Under the following constraints:
Converge?
2 (9)
There are several deterministic algorithms; we mention the

method of separation and evaluation and the method of cutting
planes.
The deterministic algorithm used to find the optimal solution,
but its complexity is exponential order, and it takes a lot of
memory space and it requires a very high computation time. In
large size problems, this algorithm cannot be used.
Fig.1. Flowchart of optimization with a genetic algorithm

GAs are remarkably robust and have been shown to solve
difficult optimization problems that more traditional methods
can not. Some of the advantages of GAs include:
They are able to optimize disparate variables, whether

they are inputs to analytic functions, experimental
data, or numerical model output.
They can optimize either real valued, binary variables,

or integer variables.
Because of the complexity of the problem and the limitations of

the linear programming approach, other approaches are needed.
They can process a large number of variables.

They can produce a list of best variables as well as the
2.2 Approximation algorithm
They are good at finding a global minimum rather than
Many problems of practical significance are NP-complete, yet

they are too important to abandon merely because we dont
know how to find an optimal solution in polynomial time. Even
if a problem is NP-complete, there may be hope. We have at
least three ways to get around NP-completeness. First, if the
actual inputs are small, an algorithm with exponential running
time may be perfectly satisfactory. Second, we may be able to
isolate important special cases that we can solve in polynomial
time. Third, we might come up with approaches to find nearoptimal solutions in polynomial time (either in the worst case or
the expected case). In practice, near-optimality is often good
enough. We call an algorithm that returns near-optimal solutions
an approximation algorithm.
An approximate algorithm, like the Genetic Algorithms, Ant
Colony [17] and Tabu Search [9], is a way of dealing with NPcompleteness for optimization problem. This technique does not
guarantee the best solution. The goal of an approximation
algorithm is to come as close as possible to the optimum value
in a reasonable amount of time which is at most polynomial
time.
single best solution.

local minima.
They can simultaneously sample various portions of a

cost surface.
They are easily adapted to parallel computation.

Some disadvantages are the lack of viable convergence proofs
and the fact that they are not known for their speed. As seen
later in this chapter, speed can be gained by careful choice of
GA parameters. Although mathematicians are concerned with
convergence, often scientists and engineers are more interested
in using a tool to find a better solution than obtained by other
means. The GA is such a tool.
These algorithms were modeled on the natural evolution of
species. We add to this evolution concepts the observed
properties of genetics (Selection, Crossover, Mutation, etc),
from which the name Genetic Algorithm. They attracted the
interest of many researchers, starting with Holland [15], who
developed the basic principles of genetic algorithm, and
Goldberg [8] has used these principles to solve a specific
optimization problems. Other researchers have followed this
path [10]-[14].
51

3.1 Principles and Functioning
4.2 Generation of the initial population
Irrespective of the problems treated, genetic algorithms,

presented in figure (Fig. 1), are based on six principles:
Each treated problem has a specific way to encode the
individuals of the genetic population. A chromosome
(a particular solution) has different ways of being
coded: numeric, symbolic, or alphanumeric;
Creation of an initial population formed by a finite
number of solutions;
Definition of an evaluation function (fitness) to
evaluate a solution;
Selection mechanism to generate new solutions, used to
identify individuals in a population that could be
crossed, there are several methods in the literature,
citing the method of selection by rank, roulette, by
tournament, random selection, etc.;
Reproduce the new individuals by using Genetic
operators:
i.
Crossover operator: is a genetic operator that
combines two chromosomes (parents) to
produce a new chromosome (children) with
crossover probability Px ;
ii.
Mutation operator: it avoids establishing a
uniform population unable to evolve. This
operator used to modify the genes of a
chromosome selected with a mutation
probability Pm;
Insertion mechanism: to decide who should stay and
who should disappear.
Stopping test: to make sure about the optimality of the
solution obtained by the genetic algorithm.
We presented the various steps which constitute the general
structure of a genetic algorithm: Coding, method of selection,
crossover and mutation operator and their probabilities,
insertion mechanism, and the stopping test. For each of these
steps, there are several possibilities. The choice between these
various possibilities allows us to create several variants of
genetic algorithm. Subsequently, our work focuses on finding a
solution to that combinative problem: What are the best settings
which create an efficient genetic variant to solve the Traveling
Salesman Problem?
The initial population conditions the speed and the convergence

of the algorithm. For this, we applied several methods to
generate the initial population:
Random generation of the initial population.
4. APPLIED GENETIC ALGORITHMS

TO THE TRAVELING SALESMAN
PROBLEM
4.1 Problem representation methods
In this section we will present the most adapted method of data
representation, the path representation method, with the treated
problem.
The path representation is perhaps the most natural
representation of a tour. A tour is encoded by an array of
integers representing the successor and predecessor of each city.
Table 2. Coding of a tour (3, 5, 2, 9, 7, 6, 8, 4)
3
Generation of the first individual randomly, this one will be

mutated N-1 times with a mutation operator.
Generation of the first individual by using a heuristic
mechanism. The successor of the first city is located at a
distance smaller compared to the others. Next, we use a
mutation operator on the route obtained in order to generate (N2) other individuals who will constitute the initial population.
4.3 Selection
While there are many different types of selection, we will cover
the most common type - roulette wheel selection. In roulette
wheel selection, the individuals are given a probability Pi of
being selected (10) that is directly proportionate to their fitness.
The algorithm for a roulette wheel selection algorithm is
illustrated in algorithm (Fig. 3)
1
N1
fi
jPopulation
fj
(10)
Which fi is value of fitness function for the individual i.

for all members of population
sum += fitness of this individual
endfor
probability = sum of probabilities + (fitness / sum)
sum of probabilities += probability
endfor
number = Random between 0 and 1
if number > probability but less than next probability
then you have been selected
endfor
Fig.2. Roulette wheel selection algorithm

Thus, individuals who have low values of the fitness function
may have a high chance of being selected among the individuals
to cross.
4.4 Crossover Operator

The search of the solution space is done by creating new
chromosomes from old ones. The most important search process
is crossover. Firstly, a pair of parents is randomly selected from
the mating pool. Secondly, a point, called crossover site, along
their common length is randomly selected, and the information
after the crossover site of the two parent strings are swapped,
thus creating two new children. Of course, this basic crossover
method does not support for the TSP [18]. The two newborn
chromosomes may be better than their parents and the evolution
process may continue. The crossover in carried out according to
the crossover probability Px.In this paper, we chose five
crossover operators; we will explain their ways of proceeding in
the following.
52

Table 5. Example of PMX operator
4.4.1 Uniform crossover operator

The child is formed by a alternating randomly between the two
parents.
Parent 1
1 4 7
Child 1
1 8 6
4.4.2 Cycle Crossover

The Cycle Crossover (CX) proposed by Oliver [15] builds
offspring in such a way that each city (and its position) comes
from one of the parents. We explain the mechanism of the cycle
crossover using the following algorithm (Fig.3).
Table 3. Cycle Crossover operator
1
2
*
Parent 1
3 4 5
Child 1
1 3 5
(G.XP.1)
(G.XP.2)
*
7 5 1
Parent 1
3 4 2
Child 2
4 6 5
Parent 2
5 7 3
Child 2
Input: Parents x1=[x1,1,x1,2,,x1,n] and x2=[x2,1,x2,2,,x2,n]

Output:Children y1=[y1,1,y1,2,,y1,n] and y2=[y2,1,y2,2,,y2,n]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------Initialize
y1 = x1 and y2 = x2;
Initialize p1 and p2 the position of each index in y1 and y2;
Choose two crossover points a and b such that 1 a b n;

for each i between a and b do
t1 = y1,i
and t2 = y2,i ;
y1,i = t2 and y1,p1,t1 = t1 ;
y2,i = t1 and y2,p2,t2 = t2 ;
p1,t1= p1,t2 and p1,t2 = p1,t1 ;
p2,t1 = p2,t2 and p2,t2 = p2,t1 ;
endfor
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------Initialize
Initialize y1 and y2 being a empty genotypes;

y1,1= x1,1;
y2,1 = x2,1;
i = 1;
Repeat
j Index where we find x2,i, in X1;
y1,j = x1,j ;
y2,j = x2,j ;
i = j;
Until x2,i y1
For each gene not yet initialized do
y1,i = x2,i;
y2,i = x1,i;
Endfor
4.4.3 Partially-Mapped Crossover (PMX)

Partially matched crossover PMX noted, introduced by
Goldberg and Lingel [19], is made by randomly choosing two
crossover points XP1 and XP2 which break the two parents in
three sections.
Table 4. The partition of a parent
S2
4.4.4 The uniform partially-mapped crossover

(UPMX)
The Uniform Partially Matched Crossover presented by
Cicirello and Smith [21], uses the technique of PMX. Any times,
it does not use the crossover points; instead, it uses a probability
of correspondence for each iteration. The algorithm (Fig.5) and
the following example describe this crossover method.
Table 6. UPMX operator example
3
Parent 1
1 4 7
4 6 5
Parent 2
Fig.3. Cycle Crossover (CX) algorithm
S1
Fig.4. PMXCrossover Algorithm
S3
S1 and S3 the sequences of Parent1 are copied to the Child1, the

sequence S2 of the Child1 is formed by the genes of Parent2,
beginning with the start of its part S2 and leaping the genes that
are already established. The algorithm (Fig.4) shows the
crossover method PMX.
Child 1
4 8 3
1 7 5
Child 2

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------Initialize
y1 = x1 and y2 = x2;
Initialize p1 and p2 the position of each index in y1 and y2;

For each i between 1 and n do
Chose a random number q between 0 and 1;
if q p then
t1 = y1,i
and t2 = y2,i ;
y1,i = t2 and y1,p1,t1 = t1 ;
y2,i = t1 and y2,p2,t2 = t2 ;
p1,t1= p1,t2 and p1,t2 = p1,t1 ;
p2,t1 = p2,t2 and p2,t2 = p2,t1 ;
endif
endfor
Fig.5. Algorithm of UPMXCrossover
53

4.4.5 Non-Wrapping Ordered Crossover (NWOX)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------Initialize

j1 = j2 = k = b+1;
Non-Wrapping Ordered Crossover (NWOX) operator

introduced by Cicirello [20], is based upon the principle of
creating and filling holes, while keeping the absolute order of
genes of individuals. The holes are created at the retranscription
of the genotype, if xj,i {xk,a, . . . ,xk,b}then xj,i is a hole. The
example (Table.7) and the algorithm (Fig.6) explain this
technique:
i = 1;
Repeat
Table 7. NWOX operator example

3
Parent 1
1 4 7
4 6 5
Parent 2
Child 1
1 8 7
4 7 8
Child 2
if x1,i {x2,a, . . . ,x2,b} then y1,j1 = x1,k ;j1++;

if x2,i {x1,a, . . . ,x1,b} theny2,j1 = x2,k ;j2++;
k=k+1;
Until i n
y1 = [y1,1 y1,a1 x2,a x2,b y1,a y1,na];
y2 = [y2,1 y2,a1 x1,a x1,b y2,a y2,na];
Fig 7. Algorithm of Crossover operator OX

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------Initialize

y1,1= x1,1;
y2,1 = x2,1;
i = 1;
4.4.7 Crossover with reduced surrogate

The reduced surrogate operator constrains crossover to always
produce new individuals wherever possible. This is implemented
by restricting the location of crossover points such that
crossover points only occur where gene values differ.
4.4.8 Shuffle crossover

Shuffle crossover is related to uniform crossover. A single
crossover position (as in single-point crossover) is selected. But
before the variables are exchanged, they are randomly shuffled
in both parents. After recombination, the variables in the
offspring are unstuffed. This removes positional bias as the
variables are randomly reassigned each time crossover is
performed.
for each i between a and n do

ifx1,i {x2,a, . . . ,x2,b} then y1 = [y1 x1,i] ;
ifx2,i {x1,a, . . . ,x1,b} then y2 = [y2 x2,i] ;
endfor
y1 = [y1,1 y1,a1 x2,a x2,b y1,a y1,na];
y2 = [y2,1 y2,a1 x1,a x1,b y2,a y2,na];
4.5 Mutation Operators
Fig 6.Algorithm of NWOXcrossover operator
The two individuals (children) resulting from each crossover

operation will now be subjected to the mutation operator in the
final step to forming the new generation. This operator randomly
flips or alters one or more bit values at randomly selected
locations in a chromosome.
4.4.6 Ordered Crossover (OX)

The Ordered Crossover method is presented by Goldberg[8], is
used when the problem is of order based, for example in Ushaped assembly line balancing etc. Given two parent
chromosomes, two random crossover points are selected
partitioning them into a left, middle and right portion. The
ordered two-point crossover behaves in the following way:
child1 inherits its left and right section from parent1, and its
middle section is determined.
The mutation operator enhances the ability of the GA to find a

near optimal solution to a given problem by maintaining a
sufficient level of genetic variety in the population, which is
needed to make sure that the entire solution space is used in the
search for the best solution. In a sense, it serves as an insurance
policy; it helps prevent the loss of genetic material.
Table 8. OX operator example

3
Parent 1
1 4 7
4 6 5
Parent 2
Child 1
1 8 6
4 7 3
Child 2
In this study, we chose as mutation operator the Mutation

methodReverse Sequence Mutation (RSM).
2
In the reverse sequence mutation operator, we take a sequence S

limited by two positions i and j randomly chosen, such that i<j.
The gene order in this sequence will be reversed by the same
way as what has been covered in the previous operation. The
algorithm (Fig. 8) shows the implementation of this mutation
operator.
Table 9.Mutation operator RSM
Parent
*
2
*
5
Child
54

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------Choose two crossover points a and b such that 1 a b n;
Repeat
Permute (xa, xb);
a = a + 1;
b = b 1;
until a<b
Fig.8. Algorithm of RSM operator
4.6 Insertion Method

We used the method of inserting elitism that consists in copy the
best chromosome from the old to the new population. This is
supplemented by the solutions resulting from operations of
crossover and mutation, in ensuring that the population size
remains fixed from one generation to another.
We would also like to note that the GAs without elitism can also
be modeled as a Markov chain and Davis and Principe [38]
proved their convergence to the limiting distributions under
some conditions on the mutation probabilities [16]. However, it
does not guarantee the convergence to the global optimum. With
the introduction of elitism or by keeping the best string in the
population allows us to show the convergence of the GA to the
global optimal solution starting from any arbitrary initial
population.
5. NUMERICAL RESULTS AND

DISCUSSION
Traveler Salesman Problem (TSP) is one the most famous
problems in the field of operation research and optimization [1].
We use as a test of TSP problem the BERLIN52, witch has52
locations in the city of Berlin (Fig. 9). The only optimization
criterion is the distance to complete the journey. The optimal
solution to this problem is known, it's 7542 m (Fig. 10).
Fig.10. The optimal solution of Berlin52
5.1 Environment
The operators of the genetic algorithm and its different
modalities, which will be used later, are grouped together in the
next table (Table 10):
Table 10. The operators used
OX ; NWOX ; PMX ; UPMX ; CX
1; 0.9 ; 0.8 ; 0.7 ; 0.6 ; 0.5 ; 0.4 ; 0.3 ;
Probability of crossover
0.2 ; 0.1 ; 0
PSM ; RSM
Mutation operator
1; 0.9 ; 0.8 ; 0.7 ; 0.6 ; 0.5 ; 0.4 ; 0.3 ;
Mutation probability
0.2 ; 0.1 ; 0
Crossover operators
We change at a time one parameter and we set the others and we

execute the genetic algorithm fifty times. The programming was
done in C++ on a PC machine with Core2Quad 2.4GHz in CPU
and 2GB in RAM with a CentOS 5.5 Linux as an operating
system.
5.2 Results and Discussion

To compare statistically the operators, these are tested one by
one on 50 different initial populations after that those
populations are reused for each operator.
Generate the initial population P0
i=0
Repeat
Pi = Variation (Pi);
Evaluate (Pi);
Pi+1 = Selection ([Pi, Pi]);
Until i<Itr
Fig.11. Evolutionary algorithm

Fig.9. The 52 locations in the Berlin city
To compare statistically the operators, these are tested one by

one on 50 different initial populations after that those
populations are reused for each operator. In the case of the
comparison of crossover operators, the evolutionary algorithm is
presented in Figure 11 which the operator of variation is given
55

by the crossover algorithms and the selection is made by
Roulette for choosing the shortest route.
7. REFERENCES
Figure 12 shows the statistics of the experiments relating to the

operators of crossover. It is interesting to note that the OX
operator has not yet reached its shelf of evolution while the
NWOX operator is on the quasi-shelf.
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Fig.12. Comparison of the crossover operators
6. CONCLUSION
In this paper, the solution recombination, i.e. crossover operators
in the context of the traveling salesman problem are discussed.
These operators are known as playing an important role by
developing robust genetic algorithms.
We implemented six different crossover procedures and their
modifications in order to test the influence of the recombination
operators to the genetic search process when applied to the
traveling salesman problem. The following crossover operators
have been used in the experimentation: the Uniform Crossover
Operator (UXO), the Cycle Crossover (CX), the PartiallyMapped Crossover (PMX), the Uniform Partially-Mapped
Crossover (UPMX), the Non-Wrapping Ordered Crossover
(NWOX) and the Ordered Crossover (OX). The obtainedresults
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BERLIN52 was obtained by using the OX operator.
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57

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International Journal of Computer Applications (0975 8887)

Volume 31 No.11, October 2011