Discrete Flower Pollination Algorithm for Solving the Symmetric Travelling Salesman Problem

The Travelling Salesman Problem (TSP) is an important NP-hard combinatorial optimisation problem that forms the foundation of many modern-day, practical problems such as logistic or network route planning. The Flower Pollination Algorithm (FPA) is a continuous optimisation algorithm that demonstrated promising results in comparison to other wellknown algorithms. This paper proposes a novel algorithm, Discrete Flower Pollination Algorithm (DFPA) based on the FPA for solving the TSP. The algorithm is compared to the Ant Colony Optimisation's (ACO) MAX-MIN Ant System (MMAS) as well as the Genetic Algorithm (GA) since they are well studied and developed. The DFPA results are significantly better than the GA in all tested instances.