Soto, R.Crawford, B.Lizama, S.Johnson, F.Paredes, F.6/22/20222022-06-226/22/20222022-06-222016https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-26690-9_19The set covering problem is a classical problem in the subject of combinatorial optimization that consists in finding a set of solutions that cover a range of needs at the lowest possible cost. The literature reports various techniques to solve this problem, ranging from exact algorithms to approximate methods. In this paper, we present a new XOR-based artificial bee colony algorithm for solving set covering problems. We integrate a XOR operator to binarize the solution construction in order to cope with the binary nature of set covering problems. We also incorporate pre-processing phases and dynamic ABC parameters so as to improve solving time. We report interesting and competitive experimental results on a set of 65 benchmarks from the Beasley’s OR-Library. © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016.application/pdfen-USinfo:eu-repo/semantics/closedAccessComputer ScienceEngineeringinfo:eu-repo/semantics/conferenceObject10.1007/978-3-319-26690-9_19http://purl.org/pe-repo/ocde/ford#2.02.04