Abstract
Some features of a large number of combinatorial optimization problems prevent the use of exact solution methods. thus requiring the application of heuristic techniques to find good solutions, not always the optimal ones, in a feasible amount of time. This paper describes a heuristic approach, which is a hybrid between artificial neural networks and artificial immune systems, to solve the capacitated vehicle routing problem. This algorithm is based on a competitive model, which does not use a cost or evaluation function to determine the quality of the solution proposed. Despite this apparent drawback, the set of tests conducted with the proposed approach indicates a good performance of the algorithm when compared with similar works from the literature and the known best solutions available.