Multi-Agents Scheduling and Routing Problem with Time Windows and Visiting Activities

In our previous research, we compared the actual route recorded by a GPS device “PhotoTrackr” and the optimal vehicle route derived by using ArcGIS Network Analyst tool. VRP is the fundamental problem in the research fields of transportation, we focus on variations of CVRPTW (Capacitated VRP with Time Windows). Various types of VRP are studied to determine the optimal route under various constraints of locations, distance, time window and activities. Therefore it is difficult to straightly apply one case result to other cases, because the different constraints cause various difficulties. In this paper, based on previous results in our researches, we consider the problem of “Multi-Agents Scheduling and Routing Problem with Time Windows and Visiting Activities”. Firstly, we introduce the result of “Vehicle scheduling and routing problems in day-care center”.Secondly, based on other research result of “Scheduling of teachers for visiting high schools”, we generalize the problems to VRP with time windows and visiting activities. Based on these case studies, we propose five parameters, such as“activities at the visiting points”, “time windows”, “numbers of visiting spots within a route”, “total visiting time”, “time-lag between different routes”. We evaluate the quality of optimization based on three performance measures. Thirdly, we present our algorithm of k-means clustering under the constraints of visiting sequence. Finally, we use ArcGIS Network Analyst tool for computing cost of routes, and we evaluate the optimal visiting route with time windows and visiting activities.