py311-seriate

Optimal ordering of elements in a set given their distance matrix

This is a Python implementation of Seriation algorithm. Seriation is an approach for ordering elements in a set so that the sum of the sequential pairwise distances is minimal. We state this task as a Travelling Salesman Problem (TSP) and leverage the powerful Google's or-tools to do heavy-lifting. Since TSP is NP-hard, it is not possible to calculate the precise solution for a big number of elements. However, the or-tools' heuristics work very well in practice, and they are used in e.g. Google Maps.