Heuristic Procedures for the Capacitated Vehicle Routing Problem

In this paper we present two new heuristic procedures for the Capacitated Vehicle Routing Problem (CVRP). The first one solves the problem from scratch, while the second one uses the information provided by a strong linear relaxation of the original problem. This second algorithm is designed to be used in a branch and cut approach to solve to optimality CVRP instances. In both heuristics, the initial solution is improved using tabu search techniques. Computational results over a set of known instances, most of them with a proved optimal solution, are given.     

Heuristic Solution of Open Bin Packing Problems

Benchmark problems should be hard. I report on the solution of the five open benchmark problems introduced by Falkenauer in this journal for testing bin packing problems. Since the solutions were found either by hand or by using very simple heuristic methods, these problems would appear to be easy. In four cases I give improved packings to refute conjectures that previously reported packings were optimal, and I give a proof that the fifth conjecture was correct. In some cases this led to implemented heuristic methods which produced better solutions than those reported by Falkenauer and up to 10,000 times faster. Future experimenters should be careful to perform tests on problems that can reasonably be regarded as hard.     

带冲突关系装箱问题的启发式求解算法

现实物流活动中大量存在的食品、药品和危险品等货物的分组包装问题属于带冲突关系的装箱问题(BPPC),其优化目标是在满足货物间冲突限制的前提下完成装箱操作,并最小化使用货箱的数量。本文从实际需求出发,基于货物之间的冲突关系、装箱顺序和货箱容量等约束建立相应的数学规划模型;随后设计了求解BPPC问题的启发式算法,算法通过迭代求解最大团结构实现货物间冲突关系的消去,根据当前货物最大团采用改进降序首次适应算法(FFD)完成货物装箱操作,并通过“洗牌”策略对已有装箱方案进行局部优化;最后,针对Iori算例数据,将以上算法与基于图着色的启发式算法进行比较分析,结果表明,本文算法是求解BPPC问题更为有效的方法。     

超尺寸物品装箱问题

本文给出一类新的装箱问题，超尺寸物品装箱问题。就实际解决该问题所普遍彩的两步法，证明了当采用经典目标函数并且拆分次数不超过2时，第二步采用FFDLR的渐进最坏比为3/2。进而针对超尺寸物品装箱问题的算法提出了一个评价效率更高的目标函数。证明了在此目标函数下，当不限制物品的最大尺寸时，第二步采用最优装法两步法的渐近最坏比为2。最后，给出渐近最坏与拆分次数的关系。     

Local Search Algorithms for the Bin Packing Problem and Their Relationships to Various Construction Heuristics

The tradeoff between the speed and quality of the solutions obtained by various construction and local search algorithms for the elementary bin packing problem (BPP) are analyzed to obtain useful information for designing algorithms for real-world problems that can be modeled as BPPs. On the basis of intensive computational experiments, we observe that the framework of a solution (i.e., a part of a solution consisting of large items or items with tight constraints) should be constructed in the early stages of a local search. New local search algorithms are proposed as empirical support for the observation.     

基于图着色模型的冲突装箱问题启发式算法

带有冲突关系装箱问题的优化目标是在满足货物冲突关系的前提下,使用数量最少的货箱完成货物装箱的目的。本文分析了冲突装箱问题的数学模型,提出了基于图着色模型的启发式算法进行求解。首先,使用冲突图来描述货物之间的冲突关系;其次,基于冲突图,采取图着色的方式将货物进行分组,并且组内的货物之间不存在冲突关系;最后,采取改进FFD算法对每组的货物进行装箱操作。实验表明,本文提出的启发式算法能够快速有效地找到问题的可行解,为此类装箱问题的求解提供了新思路。     

An Application of Tabu Search Heuristic for the Maximum Edge-Weighted Subgraph Problem

The purpose of this article is to describe an efficient search heuristic for the Maximum Edge-weighted Subgraph (MEwS) problem. This problem requires to find a subgraph such that the sum of the weights associated with the edges of the subgraph is maximized subject to a cardinality constraint. In this study a tabu search heuristic for the MEwS problem is proposed. Different algorithms to obtain an initial solution are presented. One neighborhood search strategy is also proposed. Preliminary computational results are reported for randomly generated test problems of MEwS problem with different densities and sizes. For most of test problems, the tabu search heuristic found good solutions. In addition, for large size test problems, the tabu search outperformed the local search heuristic appearing in the literature.     

改进差分进化算法求解装载率凹费用装箱问题

研究了广泛存在于物流作业中一类新型的装箱问题,主要特征体现在箱子使用费用是关于装载率的凹函数。为求解问题,提出了一种基于分组编码策略的改进差分进化算法,以避免常规实数和整数编码方法存在放大搜索空间的不足。针对分组编码策略,定制化设计了以促进优秀基因传播为导向的新型变异和交叉操作,另外还嵌入了以物品置换为邻域的自适应局部搜索操作以增强局部搜索能力。对以往文献给出算例在不同凹费用函数下进行测试,实验结果显示所提出的算法明显优于BFD启发式算法,并且较遗传算法也有显著性改进。     

A Heuristic Approach for Antenna Positioning in Cellular Networks

The antenna-positioning problem concerns finding a set of sites for antennas from a set of pre-defined candidate sites, and for each selected site, to determine the number and types of antennas, as well as the associated values for each of the antenna parameters. All these choices must satisfy a set of imperative constraints and optimize a set of objectives. This paper presents a heuristic approach for tackling this complex and highly combinatorial problem. The proposed approach is composed of three phases: a constraint-based pre-processing phase to filter out bad configurations, an optimization phase using tabu search, and a post-optimization phase to improve solutions given by tabu search. To validate the approach, computational results are presented using large and realistic data sets.     

A Reactive Local Search-Based Algorithm for the Multiple-Choice Multi-Dimensional Knapsack Problem

In this paper, we approximately solve the multiple-choice multi-dimensional knapsack problem. We propose an algorithm which is based upon reactive local search and where an explicit check for the repetition of configurations is added to the local search. The algorithm starts by an initial solution and improved by using a fast iterative procedure. Later, both deblocking and degrading procedures are introduced in order (i) to escape to local optima and, (ii) to introduce diversification in the search space. Finally, a memory list is applied in order to forbid the repetition of configurations. The performance of the proposed approaches has been evaluated on several problem instances. Encouraging results have been obtained.     

A Tabu Search Heuristic for a Full-Load, Multi-Terminal, Vehicle Scheduling Problem with Backhauling and Time Windows

The problem considered is the full-load pickup and delivery problem with time windows (PDPTW), and heterogeneous products and vehicles, where the assignment of pickup points to requests is not predetermined. Elements associated with tabu search, such as diversification by reversion to junctions and the use of soft aspiration criteria, are embedded into our tabu search implementation. This metaheuristic is evaluated using random instances and selected data from a construction company in the U.K. The obtained results are compared against lower bounds from LP relaxation and also solutions from an existing multi-level heuristic.     

带参量的非合作装箱博弈

带参量的非合作装箱博弈是指:每个物品的尺寸都介于0和参量x(0相似文献   

箱覆盖问题的半定松驰算法

箱覆盖问题是NP困难问题中的经典问题，得到了广泛地研究，九十年代以来，半定松驰策略被用来求解组合优化问题，取得了很好的结果[13]，本文首次给箱覆盖问题的半定松驰算法，算法的理论分析结果表明它适合于求解大规模的箱覆盖问题。     

An Unconstrained Quadratic Binary Programming Approach to the Vertex Coloring Problem

The vertex coloring problem has been the subject of extensive research for many years. Driven by application potential as well as computational challenge, a variety of methods have been proposed for this difficult class of problems. Recent successes in the use of the unconstrained quadratic programming (UQP) model as a unified framework for modeling and solving combinatorial optimization problems have motivated a new approach to the vertex coloring problem. In this paper we present a UQP approach to this problem and illustrate its attractiveness with preliminary computational experience.     

A Tabu Search Algorithm for the Quadratic Assignment Problem

Tabu search approach based algorithms are among the widest applied to various combinatorial optimization problems. In this paper, we propose a new version of the tabu search algorithm for the well-known problem, the quadratic assignment problem (QAP). One of the most important features of our tabu search implementation is an efficient use of mutations applied to the best solutions found so far. We tested this approach on a number of instances from the library of the QAP instances—QAPLIB. The results obtained from the experiments show that the proposed algorithm belongs to the most efficient heuristics for the QAP. The high efficiency of this algorithm is also demonstrated by the fact that the new best known solutions were found for several QAP instances.     

A General Approach for Constraint Solving by Local Search

In this paper, we present a general approach for solving constraint problems by local search. The proposed approach is based on a set of high-level constraint primitives motivated by constraint programming systems. These constraints constitute the basic bricks to formulate a given combinatorial problem. A tabu search engine ensures the resolution of the problem so formulated. Experimental results are shown to validate the proposed approach. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Efficient Heuristics for the Heterogeneous Fleet Multitrip VRP with Application to a Large-Scale Real Case

The basic Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP) consists of computing a set of trips of minimum total cost, to deliver fixed amounts of goods to customers with a fleet of identical vehicles. Few papers address the case with several types of vehicles (heterogeneous fleet). Most of them assume an unlimited number of vehicles of each type, to dimension the fleet from a strategic point of view. This paper tackles the more realistic tactical or operational case, with a fixed number of vehicles of each type, and the optional possibility for each vehicle to perform several trips. It describes several heuristics, including a very efficient one that progressively merges small starting trips, while ensuring that they can be performed by the fleet. This heuristic seeks to minimize the number of required vehicles as a secondary objective. It outperforms classical VRP heuristics, can easily handle various constraints, and gives very good initial solutions for a tabu search method. The real case of a French manufacturer of furniture with 775 destination stores is presented.     

A Hybrid Heuristic for the p-Median Problem

Given n customers and a set F of m potential facilities, the p-median problem consists in finding a subset of F with p facilities such that the cost of serving all customers is minimized. This is a well-known NP-complete problem with important applications in location science and classification (clustering). We present a multistart hybrid heuristic that combines elements of several traditional metaheuristics to find near-optimal solutions to this problem. Empirical results on instances from the literature attest the robustness of the algorithm, which performs at least as well as other methods, and often better in terms of both running time and solution quality. In all cases the solutions obtained by our method were within 0.1% of the best known upper bounds.     

A Heuristic for the Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Windows

In this paper we propose a heuristic algorithm to solve the Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Windows. Its framework is a smart combination of three simple procedures: the classical k-opt exchanges improve the solution, an ad hoc procedure reduces the number of vehicles and a second objective function drives the search out of local optima. No parameter tuning is required and no random choice is made: these are the distinguishing features with respect to the recent literature. The algorithm has been tested on benchmark problems which prove it to be more effective than comparable algorithms.     

约束装箱问题的混合遗传算法求解

本将最佳适应法和遗传算法相结合，提出了一种新的启发式混合遗传算法对具有时间约束的装箱问题进行求解，给出了具体的算法步骤，试算结果表明基于启发式算法的混合遗传算法适合于求解各种约束条件下的大规模装箱问题。