scholarly journals Analysis of an Automated Vehicle Routing Problem in Logistics considering Path Interruption

2017 ◽  
Vol 2017 ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yong Zhang ◽  
Lei Shi ◽  
Jing Chen ◽  
Xuefeng Li

The application of automated vehicles in logistics can efficiently reduce the cost of logistics and reduce the potential risks in the last mile. Considering the path restriction in the initial stage of the application of automated vehicles in logistics, the conventional model for a vehicle routing problem (VRP) is modified. Thus, the automated vehicle routing problem with time windows (AVRPTW) model considering path interruption is established. Additionally, an improved particle swarm optimisation (PSO) algorithm is designed to solve this problem. Finally, a case study is undertaken to test the validity of the model and the algorithm. Four automated vehicles are designated to execute all delivery tasks required by 25 stores. Capacities of all of the automated vehicles are almost fully utilised. It is of considerable significance for the promotion of automated vehicles in last-mile situations to develop such research into real problems arising in the initial period.

2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 ◽  
pp. 1-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaobing Gan ◽  
Yan Wang ◽  
Shuhai Li ◽  
Ben Niu

This paper considers two additional factors of the widely researched vehicle routing problem with time windows (VRPTW). The two factors, which are very common characteristics in realworld, are uncertain number of vehicles and simultaneous delivery and pick-up service. Using minimization of the total transport costs as the objective of the extension VRPTW, a mathematic model is constructed. To solve the problem, an efficient multiswarm cooperative particle swarm optimization (MCPSO) algorithm is applied. And a new encoding method is proposed for the extension VRPTW. Finally, comparing with genetic algorithm (GA) and particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm, the MCPSO algorithm performs best for solving this problem.


Author(s):  
Hongguang Wu ◽  
Yuelin Gao ◽  
Wanting Wang ◽  
Ziyu Zhang

AbstractIn this paper, we propose a vehicle routing problem with time windows (TWVRP). In this problem, we consider a hard time constraint that the fleet can only serve customers within a specific time window. To solve this problem, a hybrid ant colony (HACO) algorithm is proposed based on ant colony algorithm and mutation operation. The HACO algorithm proposed has three innovations: the first is to update pheromones with a new method; the second is the introduction of adaptive parameters; and the third is to add the mutation operation. A famous Solomon instance is used to evaluate the performance of the proposed algorithm. Experimental results show that HACO algorithm is effective against solving the problem of vehicle routing with time windows. Besides, the proposed algorithm also has practical implications for vehicle routing problem and the results show that it is applicable and effective in practical problems.


OR Spectrum ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Tilk ◽  
Katharina Olkis ◽  
Stefan Irnich

AbstractThe ongoing rise in e-commerce comes along with an increasing number of first-time delivery failures due to the absence of the customer at the delivery location. Failed deliveries result in rework which in turn has a large impact on the carriers’ delivery cost. In the classical vehicle routing problem (VRP) with time windows, each customer request has only one location and one time window describing where and when shipments need to be delivered. In contrast, we introduce and analyze the vehicle routing problem with delivery options (VRPDO), in which some requests can be shipped to alternative locations with possibly different time windows. Furthermore, customers may prefer some delivery options. The carrier must then select, for each request, one delivery option such that the carriers’ overall cost is minimized and a given service level regarding customer preferences is achieved. Moreover, when delivery options share a common location, e.g., a locker, capacities must be respected when assigning shipments. To solve the VRPDO exactly, we present a new branch-price-and-cut algorithm. The associated pricing subproblem is a shortest-path problem with resource constraints that we solve with a bidirectional labeling algorithm on an auxiliary network. We focus on the comparison of two alternative modeling approaches for the auxiliary network and present optimal solutions for instances with up to 100 delivery options. Moreover, we provide 17 new optimal solutions for the benchmark set for the VRP with roaming delivery locations.


2017 ◽  
Vol 2017 ◽  
pp. 1-13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shifeng Chen ◽  
Rong Chen ◽  
Jian Gao

The Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP) is a classical combinatorial optimization problem. It is usually modelled in a static fashion; however, in practice, new requests by customers arrive after the initial workday plan is in progress. In this case, routes must be replanned dynamically. This paper investigates the Dynamic Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Windows (DVRPTW) in which customers’ requests either can be known at the beginning of working day or occur dynamically over time. We propose a hybrid heuristic algorithm that combines the harmony search (HS) algorithm and the Variable Neighbourhood Descent (VND) algorithm. It uses the HS to provide global exploration capabilities and uses the VND for its local search capability. In order to prevent premature convergence of the solution, we evaluate the population diversity by using entropy. Computational results on the Lackner benchmark problems show that the proposed algorithm is competitive with the best existing algorithms from the literature.


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