Applications of CE to COPs

In this chapter we show how CE can be employed to solve combinatorial optimization problems (COPs) from various fields. Our goal is to illustrate the flexibility and efficiency of the CE algorithm. We believe that the CE approach could open up a whole range of possible applications, for example in computational biology, graph theory, and scheduling Section 7.1 deals with an application of the CE method concerning the alignment of DNA sequences; this section is based partly on [98]. In Sections 7.2–7.4, adapted from [113], the CE method is used to solve the single machine total weighted tardiness problem (SMTWTP), the single machine common due date problem (SMDDP), and the capacitated vehicle routing problem (CVRP). Finally, in Section 7.5 we consider various CE approaches for solving the maximum clique and related graph problems.