scholarly journals Optimizing Lock Operations and Ship Arrivals through Multiple Locks on Inland Waterways

2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Hongxu Guan ◽  
Yanmin Xu ◽  
Longhao Li ◽  
Xin Huang

Locks are important components of a waterway system. To improve the efficiency of inland waterway transport, it is important to ensure ships passing locks without having to spend unnecessary waiting times at lock entrances. Meanwhile, with the trends towards digitalized and smart waterways, it is also worth investigating how the information availability could contribute to optimizing lock operations and ship arrivals on inland waterways. Therefore, this paper proposes an optimization method to schedule ships’ arrivals and their placements in locks on inland waterways, based on a mixed-integer programming model, and solves the optimization problem with large neighborhood search based heuristics. The optimization objective is threefold: first, optimizing the arrival sequence of ships at the locks; second, maximize the utilization of each lockage operation; and third, reducing the overall time that each ship spends from entering the waterway area till leaving the last lock on the waterway. Simulations are carried out to evaluate the performance of the proposed method.

2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (6) ◽  
pp. 885-912
Author(s):  
Jone R. Hansen ◽  
Kjetil Fagerholt ◽  
Magnus Stålhane ◽  
Jørgen G. Rakke

Abstract This paper considers a generalized version of the planar storage location problem arising in the stowage planning for Roll-on/Roll-off ships. A ship is set to sail along a predefined voyage where given cargoes are to be transported between different port pairs along the voyage. We aim at determining the optimal stowage plan for the vehicles stored on a deck of the ship so that the time spent moving vehicles to enable loading or unloading of other vehicles (shifting), is minimized. We propose a novel mixed integer programming model for the problem, considering both the stowage and shifting aspect of the problem. An adaptive large neighborhood search (ALNS) heuristic with several new destroy and repair operators is developed. We further show how the shifting cost can be effectively evaluated using Dijkstra’s algorithm by transforming the stowage plan into a network graph. The computational results show that the ALNS heuristic provides high quality solutions to realistic test instances.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Xueting He ◽  
Hao Quan ◽  
Wanlong Lin ◽  
Weiliang Deng ◽  
Zheyi Tan

The dramatic increase in medical waste has put a severe strain on sorting operations. Traditional manual order picking is extremely susceptible to infection spread among workers and picking errors, while automated medical waste sorting systems can handle large volumes of medical waste efficiently and reliably. This paper investigates the optimization problem in the automated medical waste sorting system by considering the operational flow of medical waste. For this purpose, a mixed-integer programming model is developed to optimize the assignment among medical waste, presorting stations, and AGVs. An effective variable neighborhood search based on dynamic programming algorithm is proposed, and extensive numerical experiments are conducted. It is found that the proposed algorithm can efficiently solve the optimization problem, and the sensitivity analysis gives recommendations for the speed setting of the conveyor.


2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 ◽  
pp. 1-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tianren Zhou ◽  
Jiaming Zhang ◽  
Jianmai Shi ◽  
Zhong Liu ◽  
Jincai Huang

In recent wars, there is an increasing trend that unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are utilized to conduct military attacking missions. In this paper, we investigate a novel multidepot UAV routing problem with consideration of weapon configuration in the UAV and the attacking time window of the target. A mixed-integer linear programming model is developed to jointly optimize three kinds of decisions: the weapon configuration strategy in the UAV, the routing strategy of target, and the allocation strategy of weapons to targets. An adaptive large neighborhood search (ALNS) algorithm is proposed for solving the problem, which is tested by randomly generated instances covering the small, medium, and large sizes. Experimental results confirm the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed ALNS algorithm.


Electronics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (12) ◽  
pp. 1452
Author(s):  
Cristian Mateo Castiblanco-Pérez ◽  
David Esteban Toro-Rodríguez ◽  
Oscar Danilo Montoya ◽  
Diego Armando Giral-Ramírez

In this paper, we propose a new discrete-continuous codification of the Chu–Beasley genetic algorithm to address the optimal placement and sizing problem of the distribution static compensators (D-STATCOM) in electrical distribution grids. The discrete part of the codification determines the nodes where D-STATCOM will be installed. The continuous part of the codification regulates their sizes. The objective function considered in this study is the minimization of the annual operative costs regarding energy losses and installation investments in D-STATCOM. This objective function is subject to the classical power balance constraints and devices’ capabilities. The proposed discrete-continuous version of the genetic algorithm solves the mixed-integer non-linear programming model that the classical power balance generates. Numerical validations in the 33 test feeder with radial and meshed configurations show that the proposed approach effectively minimizes the annual operating costs of the grid. In addition, the GAMS software compares the results of the proposed optimization method, which allows demonstrating its efficiency and robustness.


2012 ◽  
Vol 424-425 ◽  
pp. 994-998 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiao Chuan Luo ◽  
Chong Zheng Na

In steelmaking plant, the process times of machines change frequently and randomly for the reason of metallurgical principle. When those change happen, the plant scheduling and caster operation must respond to keep the optimal performance profile of plant. Therefore, the integration of plant scheduling and caster operation is a crucial task. This paper presents a mixed-integer programming model and a hybrid optimized algorithm for caster operation and plant scheduling, which combine the genetic algorithm optimization and CDFM process status verification. Data experiments illustrate the efficiency of our model and algorithm.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (11) ◽  
pp. 3127 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tarik Chargui ◽  
Abdelghani Bekrar ◽  
Mohamed Reghioui ◽  
Damien Trentesaux

In the context of supply chain sustainability, Physical Internet (PI or π ) was presented as an innovative concept to create a global sustainable logistics system. One of the main components of the Physical Internet paradigm consists in encapsulating products in modular and standardized PI-containers able to move via PI-nodes (such as PI-hubs) using collaborative routing protocols. This study focuses on optimizing operations occurring in a Rail–Road PI-Hub cross-docking terminal. The problem consists of scheduling outbound trucks at the docks and the routing of PI-containers in the PI-sorter zone of the Rail–Road PI-Hub cross-docking terminal. The first objective is to minimize the energy consumption of the PI-conveyors used to transfer PI-containers from the train to the outbound trucks. The second objective is to minimize the cost of using outbound trucks for different destinations. The problem is formulated as a Multi-Objective Mixed-Integer Programming model (MO-MIP) and solved with CPLEX solver using Lexicographic Goal Programming. Then, two multi-objective hybrid meta-heuristics are proposed to enhance the computational time as CPLEX was time consuming, especially for large size instances: Multi-Objective Variable Neighborhood Search hybridized with Simulated Annealing (MO-VNSSA) and with a Tabu Search (MO-VNSTS). The two meta-heuristics are tested on 32 instances (27 small instances and 5 large instances). CPLEX found the optimal solutions for only 23 instances. Results show that the proposed MO-VNSSA and MO-VNSTS are able to find optimal and near optimal solutions within a reasonable computational time. The two meta-heuristics found optimal solutions for the first objective in all the instances. For the second objective, MO-VNSSA and MO-VNSTS found optimal solutions for 7 instances. In order to evaluate the results for the second objective, a one way analysis of variance ANOVA was performed.


Energies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (23) ◽  
pp. 6214
Author(s):  
Sara Ceschia ◽  
Luca Di Gaspero ◽  
Antonella Meneghetti

In recent years, cold food chains have shown an impressive growth, mainly due to customers life style changes. Consequently, the transportation of refrigerated food is becoming a crucial aspect of the chain, aiming at ensuring efficiency and sustainability of the process while keeping a high level of product quality. The recently defined Refrigerated Routing Problem (RRP) consists of finding the optimal delivery tour that minimises the fuel consumption for both the traction and the refrigeration components. The total fuel consumption is related, in a complex way, to the distance travelled, the vehicle load and speed, and the outdoor temperature. All these factors depend, in turn, on the traffic and the climate conditions of the region where deliveries take place and they change during the day and the year. The original RRP has been extended to take into account also the total driving cost and to add the possibility to slow down the deliveries by allowing arbitrarily long waiting times when this is beneficial for the objective function. The new RRP is formulated and solved as both a Mixed Integer Programming and a novel Constraint Programming model. Moreover, a Local Search metaheuristic technique (namely Late Acceptance Hill Climbing), based on a combination of different neighborhood structures, is also proposed. The results obtained by the different solution methods on a set of benchmarks scenarios are compared and discussed.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (21) ◽  
pp. 7681 ◽  
Author(s):  
Walter Gil-González ◽  
Alexander Molina-Cabrera ◽  
Oscar Danilo Montoya ◽  
Luis Fernando Grisales-Noreña

This paper deals with a classical problem in power system analysis regarding the optimal location and sizing of distributed generators (DGs) in direct current (DC) distribution networks using the mathematical optimization. This optimization problem is divided into two sub-problems as follows: the optimal location of DGs is a problem, with those with a binary structure being the first sub-problem; and the optimal sizing of DGs with a nonlinear programming (NLP) structure is the second sub-problem. These problems originate from a general mixed-integer nonlinear programming model (MINLP), which corresponds to an NP-hard optimization problem. It is not possible to provide the global optimum with conventional programming methods. A mixed-integer semidefinite programming (MI-SDP) model is proposed to address this problem, where the binary part is solved via the branch and bound (B&B) methods and the NLP part is solved via convex optimization (i.e., SDP). The main advantage of the proposed MI-SDP model is the possibility of guaranteeing a global optimum solution if each of the nodes in the B&B search is convex, as is ensured by the SDP method. Numerical validations in two test feeders composed of 21 and 69 nodes demonstrate that in all of these problems, the optimal global solution is reached by the MI-SDP approach, compared to the classical metaheuristic and hybrid programming models reported in the literature. All the simulations have been carried out using the MATLAB software with the CVX tool and the Mosek solver.


2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 ◽  
pp. 1-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wenming Cheng ◽  
Peng Guo ◽  
Zeqiang Zhang ◽  
Ming Zeng ◽  
Jian Liang

In many real scheduling environments, a job processed later needs longer time than the same job when it starts earlier. This phenomenon is known as scheduling with deteriorating jobs to many industrial applications. In this paper, we study a scheduling problem of minimizing the total completion time on identical parallel machines where the processing time of a job is a step function of its starting time and a deteriorating date that is individual to all jobs. Firstly, a mixed integer programming model is presented for the problem. And then, a modified weight-combination search algorithm and a variable neighborhood search are employed to yield optimal or near-optimal schedule. To evaluate the performance of the proposed algorithms, computational experiments are performed on randomly generated test instances. Finally, computational results show that the proposed approaches obtain near-optimal solutions in a reasonable computational time even for large-sized problems.


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