A Fast Fully Parallel Ant Colony Optimization Algorithm Based on CUDA for Solving TSP

In view of the known problems of parameter sensitivity, local optimum, and slow convergence in the ant colony optimization (ACO), we aim to improve the performance of the ACO. To solve the traveling salesman problem (TSP) quickly with accurate results, we propose a fully parallel ACO (FP-ACO). Based on the max-min ant system (MMAS), we initiate a compensation mechanism for pheromone to constrain its value, guarantee the correctness of results and avoid a local optimum, and further enhance the convergence ability of ACO. Moreover, based on the compute unified device architecture (CUDA), the ACO is implemented as a kernel function on a graphics processing unit (GPU), which shortens the running time of massive iterations. Combined with the roulette wheel selection mechanism, FP-ACO has powerful search capabilities and is committed to obtaining better solutions. The experimental results show that, compared with the effective strategies ACO (ESACO) that runs on CPU, the speed-up ratio of the proposed algorithm reaches 35, and the running time is less than that of the max-min ant system-roulette wheel method-bitmask tabu (MMAS-RWM-BT) that runs on GPU. Furthermore, our algorithm outperforms the other two algorithms in the speed-up ratio and less runtime, proving that the proposed FP-ACO is more suitable for solving TSP.