Solving large set covering problems on a personal computer (Q1097839)

The set covering problem (SCP) was one of the first problems shown to be NP-complete. Heuristics are commonly used on mainframe computers in order to efficiently solve large-scale SCPs. In this paper, we use a new heuristic and several existing heuristics written in FORTRAN to solve 31 large (up to 2000 variables) SCPs on an IBM PC/AT. The new heuristic, SCAMP (set covering algorithm for the microprocessor), performed the best, with solution values deviating only in average 1,8 \% from the optimum.