An extension of the Christofides heuristic for the generalized multiple depot multiple traveling salesmen problem

Zhou Xu and Brian Rodrigues

European Journal of Operational Research, 2017, vol. 257, issue 3, 735-745

Abstract: We study a generalization of the classical traveling salesman problem, where multiple salesmen are positioned at different depots, of which only a limited number (k) can be selected to service customers. For this problem, only two 2-approximation algorithms are available in the literature. Here, we improve on these algorithms by showing that a non-trivial extension of the well-known Christofides heuristic has a tight approximation ratio of 2−1/(2k). In doing so, we develop a body of analysis which can be used to build new approximation algorithms for other vehicle routing problems.

Keywords: Approximation algorithm; Multiple depots; Traveling salesman problem (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ejores:v:257:y:2017:i:3:p:735-745

DOI: 10.1016/j.ejor.2016.08.054

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