Abstract: A discrete competitive Hopfield neural network(I}CHNN) combinai with variable neighborhood search(VNS) was proposed for the maximum diversity problem In order to overcome the local minima problem of D(}HNN,the idea of VNS was introduced into DCHNN. Once the network is trapped in local minima, the VNS can generate a new search neighborhood for I}CHNN. I}hus, the proposed algorithm can escape from local minima and further search better results. Finally, simulation results on the maximum diversity problem show that the proposed algorithm has good performancc.

Key words: Variable neighborhood search, Hopfield network, Maximum diversity problem