Applying Two-Stage Ant Colony Optimization to Solve the Large Scale Vehicle Routing Problem
نویسندگان
چکیده
The vehicle routing problem (VRP) is an important problem in the field of logistics management. As an NP-hard problem, the VRP real world sized instances cannot be solved to optimality within reasonable times. This research aims to develop a two-stage ant colony optimization (TACO) algorithm, which possesses a two-stage solution construction rule, to solve the large scale vehicle routing problem (LSVRP). In the first stage of the solution construction rule, the VRP is decomposed into several sub-problems (traveling salesman problem). Then each sub-problem is solved by an improved ant colony system (ACS) in the second stage of the construction rule. The performance of TACO is tested by 14 VRP and 20 LSVRP benchmark instances and compared with other meta-heuristic approaches in the literature. The computational results show that our TACO can obtain good solutions for large scale VRP instances and its performance is competitive with other well-known meta-heuristic algorithms.
منابع مشابه
Solving the Vehicle Routing Problem with Simultaneous Pickup and Delivery by an Effective Ant Colony Optimization
One of the most important extensions of the capacitated vehicle routing problem (CVRP) is the vehicle routing problem with simultaneous pickup and delivery (VRPSPD) where customers require simultaneous delivery and pick-up service. In this paper, we propose an effective ant colony optimization (EACO) which includes insert, swap and 2-Opt moves for solving VRPSPD that is different with common an...
متن کاملSolving the vehicle routing problem by a hybrid meta-heuristic algorithm
The vehicle routing problem (VRP) is one of the most important combinational optimization problems that has nowadays received much attention because of its real application in industrial and service problems. The VRP involves routing a fleet of vehicles, each of them visiting a set of nodes such that every node is visited by exactly one vehicle only once. So, the objective is to minimize the to...
متن کاملA Hybrid Dynamic Programming for Inventory Routing Problem in Collaborative Reverse Supply Chains
Inventory routing problems arise as simultaneous decisions in inventory and routing optimization. In the present study, vendor managed inventory is proposed as a collaborative model for reverse supply chains and the optimization problem is modeled in terms of an inventory routing problem. The studied reverse supply chains include several return generators and recovery centers and one collection...
متن کاملA HYBRID ALGORITHM FOR THE OPEN VEHICLE ROUTING PROBLEM
The open vehicle routing problem (OVRP) is a variance of the vehicle routing problem (VRP) that has a unique character which is its open path form. This means that the vehicles are not required to return to the depot after completing service. Because this problem belongs to the NP-hard problems, many metaheuristic approaches like the ant colony optimization (ACO) have been used to solve OVRP in...
متن کاملStudy of logistics distribution route based on improved genetic algorithm and ant colony optimization algorithm
To solve the problem of vehicle routing problem under capacity limitation, this paper puts forward a novel method of logistics distribution route optimization based on genetic algorithm and ant colony optimization algorithm (GA-ACO). On the first stage, improved genetic algorithm with a good global optimization searching ability is used to find the feasible routes quickly. On the second stage, ...
متن کامل