Solving the conditional and unconditional p-center problem with modified harmony search: A real case study

In this paper, we solve the well-known conditional and unconditional p-center problem using a modified harmony search algorithm. This music inspired algorithm is a simple meta-heuristic that was proposed recently for solving combinatorial and large-scale engineering and optimization problems. This algorithm is applicable to both discrete and continuous search spaces. We have tested the present algorithm on ORLIB and TSP test problems and compared the results of the classic harmony search approach to those of the modified harmony search method. We also present some results for other metaheuristic algorithms including the variable neighborhood search, the Tabu search, and the scatter search. Finally, we utilize this location model to locate bicycle stations in the historic city of Isfahan in Iran.