# A Comprehensive Survey on the Multiple Travelling Salesman Problem: Applications, Approaches and Taxonomy

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2102.12772 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2102.12772/

## Key facts

- Cited by 13 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 25 Feb 2021.

## Built on by (most cited first, 13 of 13)

- [Visual Reasoning and Multi-Agent Approach in Multimodal Large Language Models (MLLMs): Solving TSP and mTSP Combinatorial Challenges](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.00092/) (2024)
- [Equity-Transformer: Solving NP-hard Min-Max Routing Problems as Sequential Generation with Equity Context](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.02689/) (2023)
- [Mixed Integer Programming for Time-Optimal Multi-Robot Coverage Path Planning with Efficient Heuristics](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.17609/) (2023)
- [iMTSP: Solving Min-Max Multiple Traveling Salesman Problem with Imperative Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.00285/) (2024)
- [An Efficient Ground-aerial Transportation System for Pest Control Enabled by AI-based Autonomous Nano-UAVs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.14455/) (2025)
- [Predicting Drivers' Route Trajectories in Last-Mile Delivery Using A Pair-wise Attention-based Pointer Neural Network](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2301.03802/) (2023)
- [QOPTLib: a Quantum Computing Oriented Benchmark for Combinatorial Optimization Problems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.15852/) (2024)
- [An Effective Iterated Two-stage Heuristic Algorithm for the Multiple Traveling Salesmen Problem](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2201.09424/) (2022)
- [Multi-objective Pointer Network for Combinatorial Optimization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2204.11860/) (2022)
- [Task Allocation using a Team of Robots](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2207.09650/) (2022)
- [Multi-Tour Set Traveling Salesman Problem in Planning Power Transmission Line Inspection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.01179/) (2023)
- [Vehicle Fault-Tolerant Robust Power Transmission Line Inspection Planning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.01163/) (2023)
- [Data-CUBE: Data Curriculum for Instruction-based Sentence Representation Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2401.03563/) (2024)

## Abstract (arXiv)

The Multiple Travelling Salesman Problem (MTSP) is among the most interesting combinatorial optimization problems because it is widely adopted in real-life applications, including robotics, transportation, networking, etc. Although the importance of this optimization problem, there is no survey dedicated to reviewing recent MTSP contributions. In this paper, we aim to fill this gap by providing a comprehensive review of existing studies on MTSP. In this survey, we focus on MTSP's recent contributions to both classical vehicles/robots and unmanned aerial vehicles. We highlight the approaches applied to solve the MTSP as well as its application domains. We analyze the MTSP variants and propose a taxonomy and a classification of recent studies.