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 usinga modified harmony search algorithm. this music inspired algorithm is a simple meta-heuristic thatwas 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 presentalgorithm on orlib and tsp test problems and compared the results of the classic harmony searchapproach to those of the modified harmony search method. we also present some results for other metaheuristicalgorithms 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.