# Traveling Salesperson Problem

Originally Contributed by: Daniel Schermer

This tutorial describes how to implement the Traveling Salesperson Problem in JuMP using solver-independent lazy constraints that dynamically separate subtours. To be more precise, we use lazy constraints to cut off infeasible subtours only when necessary and not before needed.

It uses the following packages:

using JuMP
import GLPK
import Random
import Plots

## Mathematical Formulation

Assume that we are given a complete graph $\mathcal{G}(V,E)$ where $V$ is the set of vertices (or cities) and $E$ is the set of edges (or roads). For each pair of vertices $i, j \in V, i \neq j$ the edge $(i,j) \in E$ is associated with a weight (or distance) $d_{ij} \in \mathbb{R}^+$.

For this tutorial, we assume the problem to be symmetric, that is, $d_{ij} = d_{ji} \, \forall i,j \in V$.

In the Traveling Salesperson Problem, we are tasked with finding a tour with minimal length that visits every vertex exactly once and then returns to the point of origin, that is, a Hamiltonian cycle with minimal weight.

To model the problem, we introduce a binary variable, $x_{ij} \in \{0,1\} \; \forall i, j \in V$, that indicates if edge $(i,j)$ is part of the tour or not. Using these variables, the Traveling Salesperson Problem can be modeled as the following integer linear program.

### Objective Function

The objective is to minimize the length of the tour (due to the assumed symmetry, the second sum only contains $i<j$):

$$$\text{min\ } \sum_{i \in V} \sum_{j \in V, i < j} d_{ij} x_{ij}.$$$

Note that it is also possible to use the following objective function instead:

$$$\text{min } \sum_{i \in V} \sum_{j \in V} \dfrac{d_{ij} x_{ij}}{2}.$$$

### Constraints

There are four classes of constraints in our formulation.

First, due to the presumed symmetry, the following constraints must hold:

$$$x_{ij} = x_{ji} \quad \forall i,j \in V.$$$

Second, for each vertex $i$, exactly two edges must be selected that connect it to other vertices $j$ in the graph $G$:

$$$\sum_{j \in V} x_{ij} = 2 \quad \forall i \in V.$$$

Third, we do not permit loops to occur:

$$$x_{ii} = 0 \quad \forall i \in V.$$$

The fourth constraint is more complicated. A major difficulty of the Traveling Salesperson Problem arises from the fact that we need to prevent subtours, that is, several distinct Hamiltonian cycles existing on subgraphs of $G$.

Note that the previous constraints do not guarantee that the solution will be free of subtours. To this end, by $S$ we label a subset of vertices. Then, for each proper subset $S \subset V$, the following constraints guarantee that no subtour may occur:

$$$\sum_{i \in S} \sum_{j \in S, i < j} x_{ij} \leq \vert S \vert - 1 \quad \forall S \subset V.$$$

Problematically, we require exponentially many of these constraints as $\vert V \vert$ increases. Therefore, we will add these constraints only when necessary.

## Implementation

There are two ways we can eliminate subtours in JuMP, both of which will be shown in what follows:

• iteratively solving a new model that incorporates previously identified subtours,
• or adding violated subtours as lazy constraints.

### Data

The vertices are assumed to be randomly distributed in the Euclidean space; thus, the weight (distance) of each edge is defined as follows.

function generate_distance_matrix(n; random_seed = 1)
rng = Random.MersenneTwister(random_seed)
X = 100 * rand(rng, n)
Y = 100 * rand(rng, n)
d = [sqrt((X[i] - X[j])^2 + (Y[i] - Y[j])^2) for i in 1:n, j in 1:n]
return X, Y, d
end

n = 40
X, Y, d = generate_distance_matrix(n)
([23.603334566204694, 34.651701419196044, 31.27069683360675, 0.790928339056074, 48.86128300795012, 21.096820215853597, 95.1916339835734, 99.99046588986135, 25.166218303197184, 98.66663668987997  …  46.33502459235987, 18.582130997265377, 11.198087695816717, 97.6311881619359, 5.161462067432709, 53.80295812064833, 45.56920516275036, 27.93951106725605, 17.824610354168602, 54.89828719625274], [37.097066286146884, 89.41659192657593, 64.80537482231894, 41.70393538841062, 14.456554241360564, 62.24031828206811, 87.23344353741976, 52.49746566167794, 24.159060827129643, 88.48369255734127  …  66.12321555087209, 19.45678064479248, 39.3193497656424, 99.07406554003964, 55.03342139580574, 58.07816346526631, 76.83586278313636, 51.952465724186084, 51.486297110544356, 99.81360570779374], [0.0 53.473350122820904 … 15.506244459460921 70.09092934998034; 53.473350122820904 0.0 … 41.49527995497558 22.760099542720535; … ; 15.506244459460921 41.49527995497558 … 0.0 60.9096566304971; 70.09092934998034 22.760099542720535 … 60.9096566304971 0.0])

For the JuMP model, we first initialize the model object. Then, we create the binary decision variables and add the objective function and constraints. By defining the x matrix as Symmetric, we do not need to add explicit constraints that x[i, j] == x[j, i].

function build_tsp_model(d, n)
model = Model(GLPK.Optimizer)
@variable(model, x[1:n, 1:n], Bin, Symmetric)
@objective(model, Min, sum(d .* x) / 2)
@constraint(model, [i in 1:n], sum(x[i, :]) == 2)
@constraint(model, [i in 1:n], x[i, i] == 0)
return model
end
build_tsp_model (generic function with 1 method)

To search for violated constraints, based on the edges that are currently in the solution (that is, those that have value $x_{ij} = 1$), we identify the shortest cycle through the function subtour(). Whenever a subtour has been identified, a constraint corresponding to the form above can be added to the model.

function subtour(edges::Vector{Tuple{Int,Int}}, n)
shortest_subtour, unvisited = collect(1:n), Set(collect(1:n))
while !isempty(unvisited)
this_cycle, neighbors = Int[], unvisited
while !isempty(neighbors)
current = pop!(neighbors)
push!(this_cycle, current)
if length(this_cycle) > 1
pop!(unvisited, current)
end
neighbors =
[j for (i, j) in edges if i == current && j in unvisited]
end
if length(this_cycle) < length(shortest_subtour)
shortest_subtour = this_cycle
end
end
return shortest_subtour
end
subtour (generic function with 1 method)

Let us declare a helper function selected_edges() that will be repeatedly used in what follows.

function selected_edges(x::Matrix{Float64}, n)
return Tuple{Int,Int}[(i, j) for i in 1:n, j in 1:n if x[i, j] > 0.5]
end
selected_edges (generic function with 1 method)

Other helper functions for computing subtours:

subtour(x::Matrix{Float64}) = subtour(selected_edges(x, size(x, 1)), size(x, 1))
subtour(x::AbstractMatrix{VariableRef}) = subtour(value.(x))
subtour (generic function with 3 methods)

### Iterative method

An iterative way of eliminating subtours is the following.

However, it is reasonable to assume that this is not the most efficient way: Whenever a new subtour elimination constraint is added to the model, the optimization has to start from the very beginning.

That way, the solver will repeatedly discard useful information encountered during previous solves (e.g., all cuts, the incumbent solution, or lower bounds).

Info

Note that, in principle, it would also be feasible to add all subtours (instead of just the shortest one) to the model. However, preventing just the shortest cycle is often sufficient for breaking other subtours and will keep the model size smaller.

iterative_model = build_tsp_model(d, n)
optimize!(iterative_model)
time_iterated = solve_time(iterative_model)
cycle = subtour(iterative_model[:x])
while 1 < length(cycle) < n
println("Found cycle of length $(length(cycle))") S = [(i, j) for (i, j) in Iterators.product(cycle, cycle) if i < j] @constraint( iterative_model, sum(iterative_model[:x][i, j] for (i, j) in S) <= length(cycle) - 1, ) optimize!(iterative_model) global time_iterated += solve_time(iterative_model) global cycle = subtour(iterative_model[:x]) end objective_value(iterative_model) 525.7039004442727 time_iterated 0.04431438446044922 As a quick sanity check, we visualize the optimal tour to verify that no subtour is present: function plot_tour(X, Y, x) plot = Plots.plot() for (i, j) in selected_edges(x, size(x, 1)) Plots.plot!([X[i], X[j]], [Y[i], Y[j]]; legend = false) end return plot end plot_tour(X, Y, value.(iterative_model[:x])) ### Lazy constraint method A more sophisticated approach makes use of lazy constraints. To be more precise, we do this through the subtour_elimination_callback() below, which is only run whenever we encounter a new integer-feasible solution. lazy_model = build_tsp_model(d, n) function subtour_elimination_callback(cb_data) status = callback_node_status(cb_data, lazy_model) if status != MOI.CALLBACK_NODE_STATUS_INTEGER return # Only run at integer solutions end cycle = subtour(callback_value.(cb_data, lazy_model[:x])) if !(1 < length(cycle) < n) return # Only add a constraint if there is a cycle end println("Found cycle of length$(length(cycle))")
S = [(i, j) for (i, j) in Iterators.product(cycle, cycle) if i < j]
con = @build_constraint(
sum(lazy_model[:x][i, j] for (i, j) in S) <= length(cycle) - 1,
)
MOI.submit(lazy_model, MOI.LazyConstraint(cb_data), con)
return
end
MOI.set(lazy_model, MOI.LazyConstraintCallback(), subtour_elimination_callback)
optimize!(lazy_model)
objective_value(lazy_model)
525.7039004442727

This finds the same optimal tour:

plot_tour(X, Y, value.(lazy_model[:x]))

Surprisingly, for this particular model with GLPK, the solution time is worse than the iterative method:

time_lazy = solve_time(lazy_model)
0.17818999290466309

In most other cases and solvers, however, the lazy time should be faster than the iterative method.

Tip