A parallel iterated tabu search heuristic for vehicle routing problems

This paper introduces a parallel iterated tabu search heuristic for solving four different routing problems: the classical vehicle routing problem (VRP), the periodic VRP, the multi-depot VRP, and the site-dependent VRP. In addition, it is applicable to the time-window constrained variant of these problems. Using the iterated local search framework, the heuristic combines tabu search with a simple perturbation mechanism to ensure a broad exploration of the search space. We also describe a parallel implementation of the heuristic to take advantage of multiple-core processors. Extensive computational results show that the proposed heuristic outperforms tabu search alone and is competitive with recent heuristics designed for each particular problem.     

A general heuristic for vehicle routing problems

We present a unified heuristic which is able to solve five different variants of the vehicle routing problem: the vehicle routing problem with time windows (VRPTW), the capacitated vehicle routing problem (CVRP), the multi-depot vehicle routing problem (MDVRP), the site-dependent vehicle routing problem (SDVRP) and the open vehicle routing problem (OVRP).     

多配送中心车辆路径问题的狼群算法

针对多配送中心动态启用和车辆的合理分配,文章首先建立了以总路径长度最小为目标函数的多配送中心车辆路径问题的数学模型;其次,根据多配送中心车辆路径问题的具体特征,模拟狼群捕食行为设计了求解该问题的狼群算法;最后,应用狼群算法求解测试算例,并将其计算结果与几种常见智能优化算法的计算结果进行比较,验证了狼群算法求解多配送中心车辆路径问题的可行性与有效性。     

The multi-depot split delivery vehicle routing problem: An integer programming-based heuristic, new test problems, and computational results

The multi-depot split delivery vehicle routing problem combines the split delivery vehicle routing problem and the multiple depot vehicle routing problem. We define this new problem and develop an integer programming-based heuristic for it. We apply our heuristic to 30 instances to determine the reduction in distance traveled that can be achieved by allowing split deliveries among vehicles based at the same depot and vehicles based at different depots. We generate new test instances with high-quality, visually estimated solutions and report results on these instances.     

MDVRPTW问题多阶段迭代启发式算法

提出一个求解多车库VRPTW问题的聚类和迭代混合遗传算法。该算法采用三阶段过程：客户聚类分配、路径规划和路径改进,与以往两阶段算法不同,该算法采用混合遗传算法进行路径规划,采用竞争-插入进行路径改进,且路径规划与路径改进有机结合形成迭代路径规划过程。用Cordeau等人提出的算例实验表明该算法能够在可以接受的计算时间内得到可接受的好解。     

The single vehicle routing problem with deliveries and selective pickups

The single vehicle routing problem with deliveries and selective pickups (SVRPDSP) is defined on a graph in which pickup and delivery demands are associated with customer vertices. The difference between this problem and the single vehicle routing problem with pickups and deliveries (SVRPPD) lies in the fact that it is no longer necessary to satisfy all pickup demands. In the SVRPDSP a pickup revenue is associated with each vertex, and the pickup demand at that vertex will be collected only if it is profitable to do so. The net cost of a route is equal to the sum of routing costs, minus the total collected revenue. The aim is to design a vehicle route of minimum net cost, visiting each customer, performing all deliveries, and a subset of the pickups. A mixed integer linear programming formulation is proposed for the SVRPDSP. Classical construction and improvement heuristics, as well as a tabu search heuristic (TS), are developed and tested on a number of instances derived from VRPLIB. Computational results show that the solutions produced by the proposed heuristics are near-optimal. There is also some evidence that the best solutions identified by the heuristics are frequently non-Hamiltonian and may contain one or two customers visited twice.     

Comparing descent heuristics and metaheuristics for the vehicle routing problem

Three improvement heuristics for the vehicle routing problem are considered: a descent heuristic and two metaheuristics Simulated Annealing and Tabu Search. In order to make an in-depth comparison of the performance of these improvement heuristics, their behavior is analyzed on a heuristic, time-sensitive level as well as on a parametric level. The design and the results of the experiments are outlined. The external validity of the conclusions is discussed.Scope and purposeTabu Search (TS) and Simulated Annealing (SA) have demonstrated to be appropriate metaheuristics for solving NP-hard combinatorial optimization problems, such as the vehicle routing problem with side-constraints. In order to compare the performances of both metaheuristics with each other and with a traditional descent implementation, a comparison of the best solution independent of computing times is fundamentally wrong because metaheuristics have no unambiguous stopping criteria, as opposed to traditional descent implementations.     

Heuristics for tactical time slot management: a periodic vehicle routing problem view

In this study, we consider a tactical problem where a time slot schedule for delivery service over a given planning horizon must be selected in each zone of a geographical area. A heuristic search evaluates each schedule selection by constructing a corresponding tactical routing plan of minimum cost based on demand and service time estimates. At the end, the schedule selection leading to the best tactical routing plan is selected. The latter can then be used as a blueprint when addressing the operational problem (i.e., when real customer orders are received and operational routes are constructed). We propose two heuristics to address the tactical problem. The first heuristic is a three‐phase approach: a periodic vehicle routing problem (PVRP) is first solved, followed by a repair phase and a final improvement phase where a vehicle routing problem (VRP) with time windows is solved for each period of the planning horizon. The second heuristic tackles the problem as a whole by directly solving a PVRP with time windows. Computational results compare the two heuristics under various settings, based on instances derived from benchmark instances for the VRP with time windows.     

A tabu search heuristic for the truck and trailer routing problem

Two new construction heuristics and a tabu search heuristic are presented for the truck and trailer routing problem, a variant of the vehicle routing problem. Computational results indicate that the heuristics are competitive to the existing approaches. The tabu search algorithm obtained better solutions for each of 21 benchmark problems.     

Artificial intelligence heuristics in solving vehicle routing problems with time window constraints

This paper describes the authors’ research on various heuristics in solving vehicle routing problem with time window constraints (VRPTW) to near optimal solutions. VRPTW is NP-hard problem and best solved to near optimum by heuristics. In the vehicle routing problem, a set of geographically dispersed customers with known demands and predefined time windows are to be served by a fleet of vehicles with limited capacity. The optimized routines for each vehicle are scheduled as to achieve the minimal total cost without violating the capacity and time window constraints. In this paper, we explore different hybridizations of artificial intelligence based techniques including simulated annealing, tabu search and genetic algorithm for better performance in VRPTW. All the implemented hybrid heuristics are applied to solve the Solomon's 56 VRPTW with 100-customer instances, and yield 23 solutions competitive to the best solutions published in literature according to the authors’ best knowledge.     

A simulated annealing heuristic for the capacitated location routing problem

The location routing problem (LRP) is a relatively new research direction within location analysis that takes into account vehicle routing aspects. The goal of LRP is to solve a facility location problem and a vehicle routing problem simultaneously. We propose a simulated annealing (SA) based heuristic for solving the LRP. The proposed SALRP heuristic is tested on three sets of well-known benchmark instances and the results are compared with other heuristics in the literature. The computational study indicates that the proposed SALRP heuristic is competitive with other well-known algorithms.     

A variable neighborhood search for the multi-depot vehicle routing problem with loading cost

The purpose of this paper is to propose a variable neighbourhood search (VNS) for solving the multi-depot vehicle routing problem with loading cost (MDVRPLC). The MDVRPLC is the combination of multi-depot vehicle routing problem (MDVRP) and vehicle routing problem with loading cost (VRPLC) which are both variations of the vehicle routing problem (VRP) and occur only rarely in the literature. In fact, an extensive literature search failed to find any literature related specifically to the MDVRPLC. The proposed VNS comprises three phases. First, a stochastic method is used for initial solution generation. Second, four operators are randomly selected to search neighbourhood solutions. Third, a criterion similar to simulated annealing (SA) is used for neighbourhood solution acceptance. The proposed VNS has been test on 23 MDVRP benchmark problems. The experimental results show that the proposed method provides an average 23.77% improvement in total transportation cost over the best known results based on minimizing transportation distance. The results show that the proposed method is efficient and effective in solving problems.     

Shipment partitioning and routing to minimize makespan in a transportation network

This paper addresses the problem of partitioning and transporting a shipment of known size through an n-node public transportation network with known scheduled departure and arrival times and expected available capacities for each departure. The objective is to minimize the makespan of shipping. The problem while practical in its scope, has received very little attention in the literature perhaps because of the concentration of research in vehicle routing without regard to partitioning and partitioning without regard to routing. A general non-linear programming model is developed. The model is then converted into a linear model through the Routing First and Assignment Second approach. This approach is different from the general decomposition approaches since they normally do not guarantee optimality. However, the linear model still involves a large number of constraints, and solution is not attempted here. Instead, three heuristics are proposed for solving the problem. Two of the heuristics use iterative techniques to evaluate all possible paths. The third heuristic uses a max-flows approach based upon aggregated capacities to reduce the size of the network presented to the other heuristics. This allows for a good starting point for other heuristics, and may impact the total computational effort. We find that the heuristics developed perform well because in the case of networks that are not congested, they find the optimal solution.     

A comparison of five heuristics for the multiple depot vehicle scheduling problem

Given a set of timetabled tasks, the multi-depot vehicle scheduling problem consists of determining least-cost schedules for vehicles assigned to several depots such that each task is accomplished exactly once by a vehicle. In this paper, we propose to compare the performance of five different heuristics for this well-known problem, namely, a truncated branch-and-cut method, a Lagrangian heuristic, a truncated column generation method, a large neighborhood search heuristic using truncated column generation for neighborhood evaluation, and a tabu search heuristic. The first three methods are adaptations of existing methods, while the last two are new in the context of this problem. Computational results on randomly generated instances show that the column generation heuristic performs the best when enough computational time is available and stability is required, while the large neighborhood search method is the best alternative when looking for good quality solutions in relatively fast computational times.     

多中心半开放式送取需求可拆分的车辆路径优化

针对多中心半开放式送取需求可拆分的车辆路径问题,构建了以车辆配送距离最短为目标的多中心半开放式送取需求可拆分的数学模型。设计大变异邻域遗传算法进行求解,采用二维染色体编码及顺序交叉策略,同时运用大变异策略和邻域搜索策略提高算法全局和局部的寻优能力,通过算例对比验证了所提模型与算法的有效性。算例实验表明,大变异邻域遗传算法在求解多中心物流配送车辆路径问题上求解质量较优、求解效率较高、求解结果较为稳定,同时验证了联合配送下多中心半开放式送取需求可拆分的配送模式优于独立配送下单中心送取需求可拆分的配送模式。研究成果不仅拓展了车辆路径问题,还可为相关快递物流企业配送优化提供决策参考。     

基于深度强化学习的多配送中心车辆路径规划

多配送中心车辆路径规划(multi-depot vehicle routing problem, MDVRP)是现阶段供应链应用较为广泛的问题模型,现有算法多采用启发式方法,其求解速度慢且无法保证解的质量,因此研究快速且有效的求解算法具有重要的学术意义和应用价值.以最小化总车辆路径距离为目标,提出一种基于多智能体深度强化学习的求解模型.首先,定义多配送中心车辆路径问题的多智能体强化学习形式,包括状态、动作、回报以及状态转移函数,使模型能够利用多智能体强化学习训练;然后通过对MDVRP的节点邻居及遮掩机制的定义,基于注意力机制设计由多个智能体网络构成的策略网络模型,并利用策略梯度算法进行训练以获得能够快速求解的模型;接着,利用2-opt局部搜索策略和采样搜索策略改进解的质量;最后,通过对不同规模问题仿真实验以及与其他算法进行对比,验证所提出的多智能体深度强化学习模型及其与搜索策略的结合能够快速获得高质量的解.     

Multi-depot vehicle routing problem: a one-stage approach

This paper introduces multi-depot vehicle routing problem with fixed distribution of vehicles (MDVRPFD) which is one important and useful variant of the traditional multi-depot vehicle routing problem (MDVRP) in the supply chain management and transportation studies. After modeling the MDVRPFD as a binary programming problem, we propose two solution methodologies: two-stage and one-stage approaches. The two-stage approach decomposes the MDVRPFD into two independent subproblems, assignment and routing, and solves them separately. In contrast, the one-stage approach integrates the assignment with the routing where there are two kinds of routing methods-draft routing and detail routing. Experimental results show that our new one-stage algorithm outperforms the published methods. Note to Practitioners-This work is based on several consultancy work that we have done for transportation companies in Hong Kong. The multi-depot vehicle routing problem (MDVRP) is one of the core optimization problems in transportation, logistics, and supply chain management, which minimizes the total travel distance (the major factor of total transportation cost) among a number of given depots. However, in real practice, the MDVRP is not reliable because of the assumption that there have unlimited number of vehicles available in each depot. In this paper, we propose a new useful variant of the MDVRP, namely multi-depot vehicle routing problem with fixed distribution of vehicles (MDVRPFD), to model the practicable cases in applications. Two-stage and one-stage solution algorithms are also proposed. The industry participators can apply our new one-stage algorithm to solve the MDVRPFD directly and efficiently. Moreover, our one-stage solution framework allows users to smoothly add new specified constraints or variants.     

Heuristic methods for vehicle routing problem with time windows

This paper documents our investigation into various heuristic methods to solve the vehicle routing problem with time windows (VRPTW) to near optimal solutions. The objective of the VRPTW is to serve a number of customers within predefined time windows at minimum cost (in terms of distance travelled), without violating the capacity and total trip time constraints for each vehicle. Combinatorial optimisation problems of this kind are non-polynomial-hard (NP-hard) and are best solved by heuristics. The heuristics we are exploring here are mainly third-generation artificial intelligent (AI) algorithms, namely simulated annealing (SA), Tabu search (TS) and genetic algorithm (GA). Based on the original SA theory proposed by Kirkpatrick and the work by Thangiah, we update the cooling scheme and develop a fast and efficient SA heuristic. One of the variants of Glover's TS, strict Tabu, is evaluated and first used for VRPTW, with the help of both recency and frequency measures. Our GA implementation, unlike Thangiah's genetic sectoring heuristic, uses intuitive integer string representation and incorporates several new crossover operations and other advanced techniques such as hybrid hill-climbing and adaptive mutation scheme. We applied each of the heuristics developed to Solomon's 56 VRPTW 100-customer instances, and yielded 18 solutions better than or equivalent to the best solution ever published for these problems. This paper is also among the first to document the implementation of all the three advanced AI methods for VRPTW, together with their comprehensive results.     

Variable neighborhood search for location routing

In this paper we propose various neighborhood search heuristics (VNS) for solving the location routing problem with multiple capacitated depots and one uncapacitated vehicle per depot. The objective is to find depot locations and to design least cost routes for vehicles. We integrate a variable neighborhood descent as the local search in the general variable neighborhood heuristic framework to solve this problem. We propose five neighborhood structures which are either of routing or location type and use them in both shaking and local search steps. The proposed three VNS methods are tested on benchmark instances and successfully compared with other two state-of-the-art heuristics.     

Discrete firefly algorithm with compound neighborhoods for asymmetric multi-depot vehicle routing problem in the maintenance of farm machinery

We introduce a new variant of the vehicle routing problem, that is, the asymmetric multi-depot vehicle routing problem in the maintenance of farm machinery. When providing door-to-door service for farm machinery maintenance, there exists not only node service, (e.g., part replacement), but also directed arc service, (e.g., pulling the breakdown farm machinery from the farm location to the specified maintenance station). In the problem, there are multiple constraints, including the customer’s time window, maximum repairman working duration, fleet size, and vehicle capacity, etc. A mathematical programming model is formulated with the minimum total costs by transforming the problem into the asymmetric multi-depot vehicle routing problem with time windows. Discrete firefly algorithm with compound neighborhoods, presenting new neighborhood methods, is proposed to solve it. New procedures to evaluate the duration infeasibility are suggested with the reduced additional computational complexity. Computational results demonstrate that the proposed approach performs better than CPLEX solver, especially for large designed instances. Moreover, the proposed approach is superior to the other algorithms on solving benchmark instances of multi-depot vehicle routing problem with time windows. This study can provide decision support to door-to-door service for the maintenance of farm machinery.