A Hybrid Algorithm Technique

A new hybrid algorithm technique (HAT) based on the idea of mixing two or more algorithms is proposed. Though the algorithm is general and may be applied to the majority of optimization problems, a hybrid algorithm search technique (HAST) is the focus of this paper. As an example of HAST, this paper describes mixing of simulated annealing and tabu search algorithms into a new hybrid search algorithm applied to the traveling salesman problem. A brief introduction to the simulated annealing and tabu search algorithms is given followed by a description of how we mixed these algorithms to form a new parallel hybrid search technique. Comparison of our algorithm mixer with simulated annealing and tabu search indicates consistently better results. Examples include 33, 42, 50, 57, 75, and 100 city problems from the literature. Solutions for the 50 and 75 city problems outperform best known published to date results.