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FL-MTSP: a fuzzy logic approach to solve the multi-objective multiple traveling salesman problem for multi-robot systems

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Abstract

This paper considers the problem of assigning target locations to be visited by mobile robots. We formulate the problem as a multiple-depot multiple traveling salesman problem (MD-MTSP), an NP-Hard problem instance of the MTSP. In contrast to most previous works, we seek to optimize multiple performance criteria, namely the maximum traveled distance and the total traveled distance, simultaneously. To address this problem, we propose, FL-MTSP, a new fuzzy logic approach that combines both metrics into a single fuzzy metric, reducing the problem to a single-objective optimization problem. Extensive simulations show that the proposed fuzzy logic approach outperforms an existing centralized Genetic Algorithm (MDMTSP_GA) in terms of providing a good trade-off of the two performance metrics of interest. In addition, the execution time of FL-MTSP was shown to be always faster than that of the MDMTSP_GA approach, with a ratio of 89 %.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to acknowledge the support provided by the National Plan for Science, Technology and Innovation (MAARIFAH)—King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology through the Science and Technology Unit at King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM), the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, award Project No. 11-LE2147-4.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Manouba, Manouba, Tunisia

    Sahar Trigui

  2. Cooperative Intelligent Networked Systems (COINS) Research Group, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

    Sahar Trigui

  3. Taif University, Taif, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

    Omar Cheikhrouhou

  4. Computer and Embedded Systems Laboratory, University of Sfax, Sfax, Tunisia

    Omar Cheikhrouhou

  5. Prince Sultan University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

    Anis Koubaa

  6. CISTER/INESC-TEC, ISEP, Polytechnic Institute of Porto, Porto, Portugal

    Anis Koubaa

  7. Wireless Sensors and Robotics Laboratory, Computer Engineering, King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia

    Uthman Baroudi

  8. PRINCE Research Unit, University of Sousse, Sousse, Tunisia

    Habib Youssef

Authors
  1. Sahar Trigui
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  2. Omar Cheikhrouhou
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  3. Anis Koubaa
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  4. Uthman Baroudi
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  5. Habib Youssef
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sahar Trigui.

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The authors have no competing financial interest to disclose.

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Communicated by V. Loia.

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Trigui, S., Cheikhrouhou, O., Koubaa, A. et al. FL-MTSP: a fuzzy logic approach to solve the multi-objective multiple traveling salesman problem for multi-robot systems. Soft Comput 21, 7351–7362 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00500-016-2279-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00500-016-2279-7

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