The robust vehicle routing problem with time windows

This paper addresses the robust vehicle routing problem with time windows. We are motivated by a problem that arises in maritime transportation where delays are frequent and should be taken into account. Our model only allows routes that are feasible for all values of the travel times in a predetermined uncertainty polytope, which yields a robust optimization problem. We propose two new formulations for the robust problem, each based on a different robust approach. The first formulation extends the well-known resource inequalities formulation by employing adjustable robust optimization. We propose two techniques, which, using the structure of the problem, allow to reduce significantly the number of extreme points of the uncertainty polytope. The second formulation generalizes a path inequalities formulation to the uncertain context. The uncertainty appears implicitly in this formulation, so that we develop a new cutting plane technique for robust combinatorial optimization problems with complicated constraints. In particular, efficient separation procedures are discussed. We compare the two formulations on a test bed composed of maritime transportation instances. These results show that the solution times are similar for both formulations while being significantly faster than the solutions times of a layered formulation recently proposed for the problem.     

Waste collection vehicle routing problem with time windows

In this paper, we address a real life waste collection vehicle routing problem with time windows (VRPTW) with consideration of multiple disposal trips and drivers’ lunch breaks. Solomon's well-known insertion algorithm is extended for the problem. While minimizing the number of vehicles and total traveling time is the major objective of vehicle routing problems in the literature, here we also consider the route compactness and workload balancing of a solution since they are very important aspects in practical applications. In order to improve the route compactness and workload balancing, a capacitated clustering-based waste collection VRPTW algorithm is developed. The proposed algorithms have been successfully implemented and deployed for the real life waste collection problems at Waste Management, Inc. A set of waste collection VRPTW benchmark problems is also presented in this paper.Waste collection problems are frequently considered as arc routing problems without time windows. However, that point of view can be applied only to residential waste collection problems. In the waste collection industry, there are three major areas: commercial waste collection, residential waste collection and roll-on-roll-off. In this paper, we mainly focus on the commercial waste collection problem. The problem can be characterized as a variant of VRPTW since commercial waste collection stops may have time windows. The major variation from a standard VRPTW is due to disposal operations and driver's lunch break. When a vehicle is full, it needs to go to one of the disposal facilities (landfill or transfer station). Each vehicle can, and typically does, make multiple disposal trips per day. The purpose of this paper is to introduce the waste collection VRPTW, benchmark problem sets, and a solution approach for the problem. The proposed algorithms have been successfully implemented and deployed for the real life waste collection problems of Waste Management, the leading provider of comprehensive waste management services in North America with nearly 26,000 collection and transfer vehicles.     

A hybrid algorithm for vehicle routing problem with time windows

Vehicle routing problem with time windows (VRPTW) is a well-known combinatorial problem. Many researches have presented meta-heuristics are effective approaches for VRPTW. This paper proposes a hybrid approach, which consists of ant colony optimization (ACO) and Tabu search, to solve the problem. To improve the performance of ACO, a neighborhood search is introduced. Furthermore, when ACO is close to the convergence Tabu search is used to maintain the diversity of ACO and explore new solutions. Computational experiments are reported for a set of the Solomon’s 56 VRPTW and the approach is compared with some meta-heuristic published in literature. Results show that considering the tradeoff of quality and computation time, the hybrid algorithm is a competitive approach for VRPTW.     

带时间窗车辆路径问题的差分进化混合算法

研究了带时间窗的车辆路径问题(Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Windows,VRPTW),建立了数学模型,并设计了求解VRPTW的离散差分进化混合算法。算法采用随机车辆配载方法构造初始解,并通过构造新的变异和交叉算子进行改进。进一步,利用插入可行邻域和2-Opt可行邻域两种搜索可行解的邻域结构,引入禁忌搜索进一步进行局部搜索以提高算法的寻优能力。实验结果表明该算法是求解VRPTW的一种有效方法。     

A guided cooperative search for the vehicle routing problem with time windows

We have developed a pattern-identification mechanism that endows cooperative search with capabilities to create new information and guide the global search. The proposed mechanism sends information to independent metaheuristics about promising and unpromising patterns in the solution space. By fixing or prohibiting specific solution attribute values in certain search metaheuristics, we can focus the search on desired regions. The mechanism thus enforces better coordination between individual methods and controls the global search's diversification and intensification. An enhanced cooperative-search mechanism creates new information from exchanged solutions and guides the global search with a pattern-identification mechanism.     

A cooperative parallel meta-heuristic for the vehicle routing problem with time windows

This paper presents a parallel cooperative multi-search method for the vehicle routing problem with time windows. It is based on the solution warehouse strategy, in which several search threads cooperate by asynchronously exchanging information on the best solutions identified. The exchanges are performed through a mechanism, called solution warehouse, which holds and manages a pool of solutions. This enforces the asynchronous strategy of information exchanges and ensures the independence of the individual search processes. Each of these independent processes implements a different meta-heuristic, an evolutionary algorithm or a tabu search procedure. No attempt has been made to calibrate the individual procedures or the parallel cooperative method. The results obtained on an extended set of test problems show that the parallel procedure achieves linear accelerations and identifies solutions of comparable quality to those obtained by the best methods in the literature.     

Formulations and exact algorithms for the vehicle routing problem with time windows

In this paper we review the exact algorithms proposed in the last three decades for the solution of the vehicle routing problem with time windows (VRPTW). The exact algorithms for the VRPTW are in many aspects inherited from work on the traveling salesman problem (TSP). In recognition of this fact this paper is structured relative to four seminal papers concerning the formulation and exact solution of the TSP, i.e. the arc formulation, the arc-node formulation, the spanning tree formulation, and the path formulation. We give a detailed analysis of the formulations of the VRPTW and a review of the literature related to the different formulations. There are two main lines of development in relation to the exact algorithms for the VRPTW. One is concerned with the general decomposition approach and the solution to certain dual problems associated with the VRPTW. Another more recent direction is concerned with the analysis of the polyhedral structure of the VRPTW. We conclude by examining possible future lines of research in the area of the VRPTW.     

Lagrangian duality applied to the vehicle routing problem with time windows

This paper considers the vehicle routing problem with time windows, where the service of each customer must start within a specified time interval. We consider the Lagrangian relaxation of the constraint set requiring that each customer must be served by exactly one vehicle yielding a constrained shortest path subproblem. We present a stabilized cutting-plane algorithm within the framework of linear programming for solving the associated Lagrangian dual problem. This algorithm creates easier constrained shortest path subproblems because less negative cycles are introduced and it leads to faster multiplier convergence due to a stabilization of the dual variables. We have embedded the stabilized cutting-plane algorithm in a branch-and-bound search and introduce strong valid inequalities at the master problem level by Lagrangian relaxation. The result is a Lagrangian branch-and-cut-and-price (LBCP) algorithm for the VRPTW. Making use of this acceleration strategy at the master problem level gives a significant speed-up compared to algorithms in the literature based on traditional column generation. We have solved two test problems introduced in 2001 by Gehring and Homberger with 400 and 1000 customers respectively, which to date are the largest problems ever solved to optimality. We have implemented the LBCP algorithm using the ABACUS open-source framework for solving mixed-integer linear-programs by branch, cut, and price.     

Customer satisfaction in dynamic vehicle routing problem with time windows

The dynamic vehicle routing and scheduling problem is a well-known complex combinatorial optimization problem that drew significant attention over the past few years. This paper presents a novel algorithm introducing a new strategy to integrate anticipated future visit requests during plan generation, aimed at explicitly improving customer satisfaction. An evaluation of the proposed strategy is performed using a hybrid genetic algorithm previously designed for the dynamic vehicle problem with time windows that we modified to capture customer satisfaction over multiple visits. Simulations compare the value of the revisited algorithm exploiting the new strategy, clearly demonstrating its impact on customer satisfaction level.     

Arcs-states models for the vehicle routing problem with time windows and related problems

This paper presents several Arcs-States models that can be applied to numerous vehicle routing problems, one of which is the well-known vehicle routing problem with capacities and time windows. In these models, the variables correspond to the states (i.e. the resource quantities) of the vehicles when they travel through an arc. The LP relaxation of the problem provides a lower bound that can be embedded in a branch and bound algorithm that solves the problem exactly. However, for the pseudo-polynomial number of variables and constraints of our models, column and row generations have to be used. Generally, in a branch and bound algorithm, the lower bound needs to be very efficient to minimize the size of the branch and bound trees as far as possible. One of the models we present, the time-only, relies on a relaxation of the Arcs-States model where a resource is removed from the states in the variables. Although the quality of the bounds decreases, the global resolution time is greatly improved, as illustrated on instances of Solomon's benchmark.     

An improved LNS algorithm for real-time vehicle routing problem with time windows

This paper studies the dynamic vehicle routing problem with hard time windows (DVRPTW). The main study course of this problem was briefly reviewed. The solving strategy and algorithm of the problem are put forward. First of all, DVRPTW problem is decomposed into a series of static VRPTW. When and how to decompose the DVRP is the issue, that must be addressed. An event-trigger mechanism has been proposed and used to decompose the DVRPTW into a series of system delay-snapshots. The trigger event to be adopted is a new request arrival during the stable operation. And each snapshot is regarded as a static VRPTW. Whether each static VRPTW can quickly and efficiently be solved within a given time or a shorter time, i.e. the solving time is another issue for the DVRPTW. In the solving process, how to merge the latest requirement to the current solution is the third issue that must be solved. An improved large neighborhood search (LNS) algorithm is proposed to solve the static problem. Utilizing the remove-reinsert process of the LNS, the latest request nodes are regarded as a part of the removed nodes; these nodes can be inserted into the original or current solution in good time in the reinsertion process; meanwhile, its computing speed is high and effective for it does not need to resolve primal problem each time. Computational results of a large number of test problems, which cited from Solomon's static benchmarks and Lacker’s dynamic data set, show that our method is superior to other methods in most instances.     

An improved multi-objective evolutionary algorithm for the vehicle routing problem with time windows

The vehicle routing problem with time windows is a complex combinatorial problem with many real-world applications in transportation and distribution logistics. Its main objective is to find the lowest distance set of routes to deliver goods, using a fleet of identical vehicles with restricted capacity, to customers with service time windows. However, there are other objectives, and having a range of solutions representing the trade-offs between objectives is crucial for many applications. Although previous research has used evolutionary methods for solving this problem, it has rarely concentrated on the optimization of more than one objective, and hardly ever explicitly considered the diversity of solutions. This paper proposes and analyzes a novel multi-objective evolutionary algorithm, which incorporates methods for measuring the similarity of solutions, to solve the multi-objective problem. The algorithm is applied to a standard benchmark problem set, showing that when the similarity measure is used appropriately, the diversity and quality of solutions is higher than when it is not used, and the algorithm achieves highly competitive results compared with previously published studies and those from a popular evolutionary multi-objective optimizer.     

The capacitated vehicle routing problem with stochastic demands and time windows

The capacitated vehicle routing problem with stochastic demands and time windows is an extension of the capacitated vehicle routing problem with stochastic demands, in which demands are stochastic and a time window is imposed on each vertex. A vertex failure occurring when the realized demand exceeds the vehicle capacity may trigger a chain reaction of failures on the remaining vertices in the same route, as a result of time windows. This paper models this problem as a stochastic program with recourse, and proposes an adaptive large neighborhood search heuristic for its solution. Modified Solomon benchmark instances are used in the experiments. Computational results clearly show the superiority of the proposed heuristic over an alternative solution approach.     

Modeling rolling batch planning as vehicle routing problem with time windows

This paper considers the rolling batch planning problem of grouping and sequencing a given set of slabs into several rolling units in iron and steel industry. The existing mathematical methods often used for the problem are traveling salesman problem (TSP) and vehicle routing problem (VRP), but these methods are not precise, because the position limitation of some slabs in a rolling unit scheduling is not considered. Therefore we suggest a new model, vehicle routing problem with time window (VRPTW) to describe the rolling batch planning problem, in which the position limitation of slabs are quantified as the time constraints. Several solution methods including the genetic algorithm are presented for solving the problem and the computational results show that the genetic algorithm is superior to other methods.In this paper, the vehicle routing problem with time window (VRPTW) of combinational optimization is used to analyze and model the rolling batch planning problem. Genetic algorithm and heuristic are used to solve the problem. Simulation results based on the actual production data show that this model is precise and the genetic algorithm based method is very promising.     

Heuristics for the multi-period orienteering problem with multiple time windows

We present the multi-period orienteering problem with multiple time windows (MuPOPTW), a new routing problem combining objective and constraints of the orienteering problem (OP) and team orienteering problem (TOP), constraints from standard vehicle routing problems, and original constraints from a real-world application. The problem itself comes from a real industrial case. Specific route duration constraints result in a route feasibility subproblem. We propose an exact algorithm for this subproblem, and we embed it in a variable neighborhood search method to solve the whole routing problem. We then provide experimental results for this method. We compare them to a commercial solver. We also adapt our method to standard benchmark OP and TOP instances, and provide comparative tables with state-of-the-art algorithms.     

A decomposition based memetic algorithm for multi-objective vehicle routing problem with time windows

Multi-objective evolutionary algorithm based on decomposition (MOEA/D) provides an excellent algorithmic framework for solving multi-objective optimization problems. It decomposes a target problem into a set of scalar sub-problems and optimizes them simultaneously. Due to its simplicity and outstanding performance, MOEA/D has been widely studied and applied. However, for solving the multi-objective vehicle routing problem with time windows (MO-VRPTW), MOEA/D faces a difficulty that many sub-problems have duplicated best solutions. It is well-known that MO-VRPTW is a challenging problem and has very few Pareto optimal solutions. To address this problem, a novel selection operator is designed in this work to enhance the original MOEA/D for dealing with MO-VRPTW. Moreover, three local search methods are introduced into the enhanced algorithm. Experimental results indicate that the proposed algorithm can obtain highly competitive results on Solomon׳s benchmark problems. Especially for instances with long time windows, the proposed algorithm can obtain more diverse set of non-dominated solutions than the other algorithms. The effectiveness of the proposed selection operator is also demonstrated by further analysis.     

Exact and heuristic algorithms for the vehicle routing problem with multiple interdependent time windows

In this paper a model and several solution procedures for a novel type of vehicle routing problems where time windows for the pickup of perishable goods depend on the dispatching policy used in the solution process are presented. This problem is referred to as Vehicle Routing Problem with multiple interdependent time windows (VRPmiTW) and is motivated by a project carried out with the Austrian Red Cross blood program to assist their logistics department. Several variants of a heuristic constructive procedure as well as a branch-and-bound based algorithm for this problem were developed and implemented. Besides finding the expected reduction in costs when compared with the current procedures of the Austrian Red Cross, the results show that the heuristic algorithms find solutions reasonably close to the optimum in fractions of a second. Another important finding is that increasing the number of pickups at selected customers beyond the theoretical minimum number of pickups yields significantly greater potential for cost reductions.     

Adaptive memetic algorithm for minimizing distance in the vehicle routing problem with time windows

This paper presents an adaptive memetic algorithm to solve the vehicle routing problem with time windows (VRPTW). It is a well-known NP-hard discrete optimization problem with two objectives—to minimize the number of vehicles serving a set of geographically dispersed customers, and to minimize the total distance traveled in the routing plan. Although memetic algorithms have been proven to be extremely efficient in solving the VRPTW, their main drawback is an unclear tuning of their numerous parameters. Here, we introduce the adaptive memetic algorithm (AMA-VRPTW) for minimizing the total travel distance. In AMA-VRPTW, a population of solutions evolves with time. The parameters of the algorithm, including the selection scheme, population size and the number of child solutions generated for each pair of parents, are adjusted dynamically during the search. We propose a new adaptive selection scheme to balance the exploration and exploitation of the solution space. Extensive experimental study performed on the well-known Solomon’s and Gehring and Homberger’s benchmark sets confirms the efficacy and convergence capabilities of the proposed AMA-VRPTW. We show that it is very competitive compared with other state-of-the-art techniques. Finally, the influence of the proposed adaptive schemes on the AMA-VRPTW behavior and performance is investigated in a thorough sensitivity analysis. This analysis is complemented with the two-tailed Wilcoxon test for verifying the statistical significance of the results.     

A penalty-based edge assembly memetic algorithm for the vehicle routing problem with time windows

In this paper, we present an effective memetic algorithm for the vehicle routing problem with time windows (VRPTW). The paper builds upon an existing edge assembly crossover (EAX) developed for the capacitated VRP. The adjustments of the EAX operator and the introduction of a novel penalty function to eliminate violations of the time window constraint as well as the capacity constraint from offspring solutions generated by the EAX operator have proven essential to the heuristic's performance. Experimental results on Solomon's and Gehring and Homberger benchmarks demonstrate that our algorithm outperforms previous approaches and is able to improve 184 best-known solutions out of 356 instances.     

基于有时间窗车辆路径问题的混合蚁群算法

有时间窗的车辆路径问题是目前组合优化领域研究的热点问题,其归属于NP-hard问题.在对该问题进行分析的基础上,为之建立了数学模型,提出了一种求解该问题的混合蚁群算法.该算法通过在蚁群算法中引AA-interchange变异算子,增强了算法的局部搜索能力,避免了早熟现象.实验结果表明,该算法能有效解决有时间窗的车辆路径问题.