TRAVELING

SALESMAN
PROBLEM
 TRAVELING SALESMAN
PROBLEM
The Travelling Salesman Problem (TSP) is a
combinatorial problem that deals with finding the
shortest and most efficient route to follow for
reaching a list of specific destinations.
 1. Nearest Neighbor Algorithm
POPULAR SOLUTIONS TO TRAVELLING
2. The Branch & Bound Method
SALESMAN PROBLEM
3. The brute-force approach
 • is a type of greedy algorithm which
means that at every stage of the
algorithm we pick the best possible
edge to use.
NEAREST
NEIGHBOR • The simplest and easiest to understand
of the TSP solutions.
ALGORITHM
• The key to this method is to always
visit the nearest destination and then go
back to the first city when all other
nodes/cities are visited.
NEAREST NEIGHBOR ALGORITHM A

8
7

11
E B

15 12
6
8

D 5 C
NEAREST NEIGHBOR ALGORITHM A

8
7

11
E B

15 12
6
8

D 5 C
NEAREST NEIGHBOR ALGORITHM A

8
7

11
E B

15 12
6
8

D 5 C
 • is a type of greedy algorithm which
means that at every stage of the
algorithm we pick the best possible
edge to use.
THE BRANCH &
BOUND • For each city i, 1≤i ≤ n, find the sum si of the distances from city i to
the two nearest cities; compute the sum s of these n numbers, divide
the result by 2, and, if all the distances are integers, round up the

METHOD result to the nearest integer:

Lb=[s/2]
THE BRANCH & BOUND METHOD

A 5 B
2 9
3 7

D
1 C

A
B 
C
D
THE BRANCH & BOUND METHOD

A 5 B
2 9
3 7

D
1 C

A AC+AD= 5
B  BA+BC= 12
C  CD+CA= 3
D  DC+DA= 4
24
24/2=12
THE BRANCH & BOUND METHOD A
LB=12
A 5 B
2 9 AB AC AD
3 7 LB= LB= LB=

D
1 C

A AC+AD= 5
A
B  BA+BC= 12
B 
C  CD+CA= 3
C
D  DC+DA= 4
24 D

24/2=12
THE BRANCH & BOUND METHOD A
LB=12
A 5 B
2 9 AB AC AD
3 7 LB= 13 LB= 12 LB= 12

D ACB ACD
1 C
LB= 18 LB= 12

A AC+AD= 5
A
B  BA+BC= 12
B 
C  CD+CA= 3
C
D  DC+DA= 4
24 D

24/2=12
 • A brute force approach is an approach
that finds all the possible solutions to
THE BRUTE- find a satisfactory solution to a given
problem.
FORCE • The brute force solution is simply to
APPROACH calculate the total distance for every
possible route and then select the
shortest one.
THE BRUTE-FORCE APPROACH

2
A B

7
8
5
3

D
10 C
THE BRUTE-FORCE APPROACH A

2
A B
B C D
7
8
5 C D B D B C
3

D C D B C B
D
10 C

A A A A A A
THE BRUTE-FORCE APPROACH A
2 5
7
2
A B
B C D
7 3 8 3 10 8 10
8
5 C D B D B C
3
10 10 8 8 3 3

D C D B C B
D 2
10 C 5 7 5 2 7

A A A A A A

20 27 23 27 23 20
THE BRUTE-FORCE APPROACH

2
A B

7
8
5
3

D
10 C
 • The Christofides Algorithm is an approximation algorithm that
offers an approximate solution to the TSP.

OTHER SOLUTIONS TO TRAVELLING • The Held–Karp algorithm — sometimes called the Bellman–Held–
SALESMAN PROBLEM Karp algorithm — measures the distances between all cities listed.

• Closest Insertion algorithm is similar to the Nearest Neighbor

Algorithm in the sense that they are both greedy algorithms.
Real-Life Applications of Travelling Salesman Problem
Last Mile Delivery
REFERENCES:

https://www.upperinc.com/guides/travelling-salesman-problem/
https://getcircuit.com/teams/blog/what-is-the-traveling-salesman-problem
https://www.mathematics.pitt.edu/sites/default/files/TSP.pdf
https://www.javatpoint.com/brute-force-approach
https://youtu.be/aaaVm6uUY5A
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aaaVm6uUY5A