Tabu Search

Fred Glover and Manuel Laguna

ABSTRACT

This article explores the metaheuristic approach called tabu search, which is dramatically changing our ability to solve a host of problems in applied science, business, and engineering. Tabu search has important links to evolutionary and genetic methods, often overlooked, through its intimate connection with scatter search and path relinking, evolutionary procedures that have recently attracted attention for their ability to facilitate the solution of complex problems. The adaptive memory designs of tabu search have also provided useful alternatives and supplements to the types of memory embodied in neural networks, allowing enhancements of neural network processes in practical settings.