Neutrosophic Simulated Annealing Algorithm and Its Application in Operation Optimization in Dangerous Goods Warehouse

In the classical simulated annealing algorithm (SAA), the iteration feasible solution is mainly based on a certain random probability. In the process of iteration, there is a lack of comparison between individuals and the whole population of feasible solutions, and the indicators to measure the change of state of individuals are too absolute to achieve the overall control of the algorithm. To deal with uncertain information that individuals encounter in iteration, this study introduces the idea of neutrosophic decision-making and establishes a kind of neutrosophic fuzzy set (NFS) to describe the time-varying iterative state of individuals according to the change of individual state, the change of population state, and the number of iteration. The biggest feature of this study is to propose a neutrosophic simulated annealing algorithm that combines the idea of NFS with simulated annealing. The biggest contribution of this study is to propose a novel entropy measurement method using the NFS and combine it with the simulated annealing algorithm to handle the optimization process. Finally, the effectiveness of the novel algorithm is verified by an example of warehouse optimization.