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However, they still suffer from severe issues, including high computational complexity and path intersection phenomenon, which curtail their broader applicability. This study focuses on the challenging and practical Single Depot\u2010Multiple Traveling Salesman Problem (SD\u2010MTSP) with a min\u2010max objective, which aims to minimize the maximum tour length among all salesmen. To tackle these challenges, we propose a <jats:italic>Hierarchical<\/jats:italic> Self Organizing Map (HiSOM) based on a divide\u2010and\u2010conquer framework to decompose the complex scheduling of SD\u2010MTSP into task allocation and route planning subproblems, with a strong emphasis on reducing computational complexity. Specifically, in the task allocation stage, we introduce the concept of soft labels to precisely characterize the strength of association between salesmen and their traversal cities, and devise an <jats:italic>SGD\u2010SOM<\/jats:italic> framework to optimize the sum square error with smooth gradient descents. In the route planning stage, we design a <jats:italic>TOSOM<\/jats:italic> framework to generate a topologically ordered tour with minimal length, ensuring strict adherence to the <jats:italic>convex hull<\/jats:italic> property and effectively mitigating path intersection. Comprehensive experiments on both synthetic and real\u2010world datasets demonstrate that our proposed HiSOM outperforms numerous baseline methods by up to 6.91%.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1002\/net.22268","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,2,11]],"date-time":"2025-02-11T01:13:07Z","timestamp":1739236387000},"page":"368-381","update-policy":"https:\/\/2.zoppoz.workers.dev:443\/https\/doi.org\/10.1002\/crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":4,"title":["Hisom: Hierarchical Self\u2010Organizing Map for Solving Multiple Traveling Salesman Problems"],"prefix":"10.1002","volume":"85","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/2.zoppoz.workers.dev:443\/https\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-5253-5598","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Qingshu","family":"Guan","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Electrical Engineering Xi'an Jiaotong University  Xi'an 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