A hybrid heuristic for the set covering problem

In this paper, we present a hybrid approach combining an artificial bee colony (ABC) algorithm with a local search to solve the non‐unicost Set Covering Problem (SCP). Given a 0–1 matrix where each column is associated with a non‐negative cost. A 1 at the jth column of ith row of this matrix indicates that row i is covered by column j, whereas, a 0 indicates that it is not. The objective of the SCP is to find a subset of columns with minimum cost such that each row of the matrix is covered by at least one column. The ABC algorithm is a recent metaheuristic technique based on the intelligent foraging behavior of honey bee swarm. Computational results show that our ABC algorithm is competitive in terms of solution quality with other metaheuristic approaches for the SCP problem.