GRASP with Path-Relinking for the Quadratic Assignment Problem

This paper describes a GRASP with path-relinking heuristic for the quadratic assignment problem. GRASP is a multi-start procedure, where different points in the search space are probed with local search for high-quality solutions. Each iteration of GRASP consists of the construction of a randomized greedy solution, followed by local search, starting from the constructed solution. Path-relinking is an approach to integrate intensification and diversification in search. It consists in exploring trajectories that connect high-quality solutions. The trajectory is generated by introducing in the initial solution, attributes of the guiding solution. Experimental results illustrate the effectiveness of GRASP with path-relinking over pure GRASP on the quadratic assignment problem.