Swapping algorithm and meta-heuristic solutions for combinatorial optimization n-queens problem.

Abstract

This research proposes the swapping algorithm a new algorithm for solving the n-queens problem, and provides data from experimental performance results of this new algorithm. A summary is also provided of various meta-heuristic approaches which have been used to solve the n-queens problem including neural networks, evolutionary algorithms, genetic programming, and recently Imperialist Competitive Algorithm (ICA). Currently the Cooperative PSO algorithm is the best algorithm in the literature for finding the first valid solution. Also the research looks into the effect of the number of hidden nodes and layers within neural networks and the effect on the time taken to find a solution. This paper proposes a new swapping algorithm which swaps the position of queens.