DNA Computing for Traveling Salesman Problem

In this paper, Genetic algorithms is applied to traveling salesman problem whose solution requires encoding of real values in DNA strands. Encode weights in DNA computing is an important but challenging problem because many practical applications in the real world involve weights. In order to efficiently encode weights in DNA strands, we firstly proposed two definitions, the order number of weight and the relative length graph. And then, by means of the two definitions, we have devised a new method of encoding weights in DNA strands for a weighted graph. DNA algorithm solving the traveling salesman problem is given. The effectiveness of the proposed method is verified by simulation. The method was applied to solve the traveling salesman problem, and it can be expanded to solve other numerical optimization problems.