Travelling Salesman Problem (TSP) is an NP-complete optimization problem, where the shortest route between cities has to be estimated. In particular, heuristic or discrete optimization is used to find solutions for large problems. A recent article [1] proses a discrete tree-seed algorithm for solving symmetric TSP problems. However, it appears to resemble a genetic algorithm with only mutation operations and a 2-opt operation to improve the generated solutions in each iteration. It is well established that combining heuristic methods with local search improves the algorithm's performance. Implement the proposed algorithm and design a similar genetic algorithm with 2-opt and compare the results. Could this be a genetic algorithm in disguise and what might be reasons for the limitation on symetric TSP's
[1] Cinar, A. C., Korkmaz, S., & Kiran, M. S. (2020). A discrete tree-seed algorithm for solving symmetric traveling salesman problem. Engineering Science and Technology, an International Journal, 23(4), 879–890. doi:10.1016/j.jestch.2019.11.005 Link: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2215098619313527