Optimization Techniques to Solve Travelling Salesman Problem Using Machine Learning Algorithms

Travelling Salesmen problem is a very popular problem in the world of computer programming. It deals with the optimization of algorithms and an ever changing scenario as it gets more and more complex as the number of variables goes on increasing. The solutions which exist for this problem are optimal for a small and definite number of cases. One cannot take into consideration of the various factors which are included when this specific problem is tried to be solved for the real world where things change continuously. There is a need to adapt to these changes and find optimized solutions as the application goes on. The ability to adapt to any kind of data, whether static or ever-changing, understand and solve it is a quality that is shown by Machine Learning algorithms. As advances in Machine Learning take place, there has been quite a good amount of research for how to solve NP-hard problems using Machine Learning. This reportis a survey to understand what types of machine algorithms can be used to solve with TSP. Different types of approaches like Ant Colony Optimization and Q-learning are explored and compared. Ant Colony Optimization uses the concept of ants following pheromone levels which lets them know where the most amount of food is. This is widely used for TSP problems where the path is with the most pheromone is chosen. Q-Learning is supposed to use the concept of awarding an agent when taking the right action for a state it is in and compounding those specific rewards. This is very much based on the exploiting concept where the agent keeps on learning onits own to maximize its own reward. This can be used for TSP where an agentwill be rewarded for having a short path and will be rewarded more if the path chosen is the shortest. Keywords: LINEAR REGRESSION, LASSO REGRESSION, RIDGE REGRESSION, DECISION TREE REGRESSOR, MACHINE LEARNING, HYPERPARAMETER TUNING, DATA ANALYSIS