A branch-and-cut-and-price algorithm for the cumulative capacitated vehicle routing problem

In this paper we consider the Cumulative Capacitated Vehicle Routing Problem (CCVRP), which is a variation of the well-known Capacitated Vehicle Routing Problem (CVRP). In this problem, the traditional objective of minimizing total distance or time traveled by the vehicles is replaced by minimizing the sum of arrival times at the customers. We propose a branch-and-cut-and-price algorithm for obtaining optimal solutions to the problem. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first published exact algorithm for the CCVRP. We present computational results based on a set of standard CVRP benchmarks and investigate the effect of modifying the number of vehicles available.     

Heuristic solution approaches for the cumulative capacitated vehicle routing problem

Cumulative capacitated vehicle routing problem (CCVRP) is an extension of the well-known capacitated vehicle routing problem, where the objective is minimization of sum of the arrival times at nodes instead of minimizing the total tour cost. This type of routing problem arises when a priority is given to customer needs or dispatching vital goods supply after a natural disaster. This paper focuses on comparing the performances of neighbourhood and population-based approaches for the new problem CCVRP. Genetic algorithm (GA), an evolutionary algorithm using particle swarm optimization mechanism with GA operators, and tabu search (TS) are compared in terms of required CPU time and obtained objective values. In addition, a nearest neighbourhood-based initial solution technique is also proposed within the paper. To the best of authors’ knowledge, this paper constitutes a base for comparisons along with GA, and TS for further possible publications on the new problem CCVRP.     

Approximating the chance-constrained capacitated vehicle routing problem with robust optimization

4OR - The Capacitated Vehicle Routing Problem (CVRP) is a classical combinatorial optimization problem that aims to serve a set of customers, using a set of identical vehicles, satisfying the...     

On the capacitated vehicle routing problem

 We consider the Vehicle Routing Problem, in which a fixed fleet of delivery vehicles of uniform capacity must service known customer demands for a single commodity from a common depot at minimum transit cost. This difficult combinatorial problem contains both the Bin Packing Problem and the Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP) as special cases and conceptually lies at the intersection of these two well-studied problems. The capacity constraints of the integer programming formulation of this routing model provide the link between the underlying routing and packing structures. We describe a decomposition-based separation methodology for the capacity constraints that takes advantage of our ability to solve small instances of the TSP efficiently. Specifically, when standard procedures fail to separate a candidate point, we attempt to decompose it into a convex combination of TSP tours; if successful, the tours present in this decomposition are examined for violated capacity constraints; if not, the Farkas Theorem provides a hyperplane separating the point from the TSP polytope. We present some extensions of this basic concept and a general framework within which it can be applied to other combinatorial models. Computational results are given for an implementation within the parallel branch, cut, and price framework SYMPHONY. Received: October 30, 2000 / Accepted: December 19, 2001 Published online: September 5, 2002 Key words. vehicle routing problem – integer programming – decomposition algorithm – separation algorithm – branch and cut Mathematics Subject Classification (2000): 20E28, 20G40, 20C20     

A branch-and-cut algorithm for the capacitated open vehicle routing problem

In open vehicle routing problems, the vehicles are not required to return to the depot after completing service. In this paper, we present the first exact optimization algorithm for the open version of the well-known capacitated vehicle routing problem (CVRP). The algorithm is based on branch-and-cut. We show that, even though the open CVRP initially looks like a minor variation of the standard CVRP, the integer programming formulation and cutting planes need to be modified in subtle ways. Computational results are given for several standard test instances, which enables us for the first time to assess the quality of existing heuristic methods, and to compare the relative difficulty of open and closed versions of the same problem.     

A new branch-and-cut algorithm for the capacitated vehicle routing problem

We present a new branch-and-cut algorithm for the capacitated vehicle routing problem (CVRP). The algorithm uses a variety of cutting planes, including capacity, framed capacity, generalized capacity, strengthened comb, multistar, partial multistar, extended hypotour inequalities, and classical Gomory mixed-integer cuts. For each of these classes of inequalities we describe our separation algorithms in detail. Also we describe the other important ingredients of our branch-and-cut algorithm, such as the branching rules, the node selection strategy, and the cut pool management. Computational results, for a large number of instances, show that the new algorithm is competitive. In particular, we solve three instances (B-n50-k8, B-n66-k9 and B-n78-k10) of Augerat to optimality for the first time.     

A heuristic algorithm for the asymmetric capacitated vehicle routing problem

We consider the Asymmetric Capacitated Vehicle Routing Problem (ACVRP[, a particular case of the standard asymmetric Vehicle Routing Problem arising when only the vehicle capacity constraints are imposed. ACVRP is known to be NP-hard and finds practical applications, e.g. in distribution and scheduling. In this paper we describe the extension to ACVRP of the two well-known Clarke-Wright and Fisher-Jaikumar heuristic algorithms. We also propose a new heuristic algorithm for ACVRP that, starting with an initial infeasible solution, determines the final set of vehicle routes through an insertion procedure as well as intea-route and inter-route arc exchanges. The initial infeasible solution is obtained by using the additive bounding procedures for ACVRP described by Fischetti, Toth and Vigo in 1992. Extensive computational results on several classes of randomly generated test problems involving up to 300 customers and on some real instances of distribution problems in urban areas, are presented. The results obtained show that the proposed approach favourably compares with previous algorithms from the literature.     

The pyramidal capacitated vehicle routing problem

This paper introduces the pyramidal capacitated vehicle routing problem (PCVRP) as a restricted version of the capacitated vehicle routing problem (CVRP). In the PCVRP each route is required to be pyramidal in a sense generalized from the pyramidal traveling salesman problem (PTSP). A pyramidal route is defined as a route on which the vehicle first visits customers in increasing order of customer index, and on the remaining part of the route visits customers in decreasing order of customer index.     

A new hybrid genetic algorithm for the capacitated vehicle routing problem

Recently proved successful for variants of the vehicle routing problem (VRP) involving time windows, genetic algorithms have not yet shown to compete or challenge current best search techniques in solving the classical capacitated VRP. A new hybrid genetic algorithm to address the capacitated VRP is proposed. The basic scheme consists in concurrently evolving two populations of solutions to minimize total travelled distance using genetic operators combining variations of key concepts inspired from routing techniques and search strategies used for a time variant of the problem to further provide search guidance while balancing intensification and diversification. Results from a computational experiment over common benchmark problems report the proposed approach to be very competitive with the best-known methods.     

Polyhedral study of the capacitated vehicle routing problem

The capacitated vehicle routing problem (CVRP) considered in this paper occurs when goods must be delivered from a central depot to clients with known demands, usingk vehicles of fixed capacity. Each client must be assigned to exactly one of the vehicles. The set of clients assigned to each vehicle must satisfy the capacity constraint. The goal is to minimize the total distance traveled. When the capacity of the vehicles is large enough, this problem reduces to the famous traveling salesman problem (TSP). A variant of the problem in which each client is visited by at least one vehicle, called the graphical vehicle routing problem (GVRP), is also considered in this paper and used as a relaxation of CVRP. Our approach for CVRP and GVRP is to extend the polyhedral results known for TSP. For example, the subtour elimination constraints can be generalized to facets of both CVRP and GVRP. Interesting classes of facets arise as a generalization of the comb inequalities, depending on whether the depot is in a handle, a tooth, both or neither. We report on the optimal solution of two problem instances by a cutting plane algorithm that only uses inequalities from the above classes.This work was supported in part by NSF grant DDM-8901495.     

A branch-and-price algorithm for the capacitated vehicle routing problem with stochastic demands

This article introduces a new exact algorithm for the capacitated vehicle routing problem with stochastic demands (CVRPSD). The CVRPSD can be formulated as a set partitioning problem and it is shown that the associated column generation subproblem can be solved using a dynamic programming scheme. Computational experiments show promising results.     

Optimised crossover genetic algorithm for capacitated vehicle routing problem

This paper presents a genetic algorithm for solving capacitated vehicle routing problem, which is mainly characterised by using vehicles of the same capacity based at a central depot that will be optimally routed to supply customers with known demands. The proposed algorithm uses an optimised crossover operator designed by a complete undirected bipartite graph to find an optimal set of delivery routes satisfying the requirements and giving minimal total cost. We tested our algorithm with benchmark instances and compared it with some other heuristics in the literature. Computational results showed that the proposed algorithm is competitive in terms of the quality of the solutions found.     

An artificial bee colony algorithm for the capacitated vehicle routing problem

This paper introduces an artificial bee colony heuristic for solving the capacitated vehicle routing problem. The artificial bee colony heuristic is a swarm-based heuristic, which mimics the foraging behavior of a honey bee swarm. An enhanced version of the artificial bee colony heuristic is also proposed to improve the solution quality of the original version. The performance of the enhanced heuristic is evaluated on two sets of standard benchmark instances, and compared with the original artificial bee colony heuristic. The computational results show that the enhanced heuristic outperforms the original one, and can produce good solutions when compared with the existing heuristics. These results seem to indicate that the enhanced heuristic is an alternative to solve the capacitated vehicle routing problem.     

EVE-OPT: a hybrid algorithm for the capacitated vehicle routing problem

This paper presents EVE-OPT, a Hybrid Algorithm based on Genetic Algorithms and Taboo Search for solving the Capacitated Vehicle Routing Problem. Several hybrid algorithms have been proposed in recent years for solving this problem. Despite good results, they usually make use of highly problem-dependent neighbourhoods and complex genetic operators. This makes their application to real instances difficult, as a number of additional constraints need to be considered. The algorithm described here hybridizes two very simple heuristics and introduces a new genetic operator, the Chain Mutation, as well as a new mutation scheme. We also apply a procedure, the k-chain-moves, able to increase the neighbourhood size, thereby improving the quality of the solution with negligible computational effort. Despite its simplicity, EVE-OPT is able to achieve the same results as very complex state-of-the art algorithms.     

An algorithm for the capacitated vehicle routing problem with route balancing

In this paper, we present a multi-objective evolutionary algorithm for the capacitated vehicle routing problem with route balancing. The algorithm is based on a formerly developed multi-objective algorithm using an explicit collective memory method, namely the extended virtual loser (EVL). We adapted and improved the algorithm and the EVL method for this problem. We achieved good results with this simple technique. In case of this problem the quality of the results of the algorithm is similar to that of other evolutionary algorithms.     

A genetic-algorithm-based approach to the two-echelon capacitated vehicle routing problem with stochastic demands in logistics service

This paper addresses the two-echelon capacitated vehicle routing problem (2E-CVRP) with stochastic demands (2E-CVRPSD) in city logistics. A stochastic program with recourse is used to describe the problem. This program aims to minimize the sum of the travel cost and the expected cost of recourse actions resulting from potential route failures. In a two-echelon distribution system, split deliveries are allowed at the first level but not at the second level, thereby increasing the difficulty of calculating the expected failure cost. Three types of routes with or without split deliveries are identified. Different methods are devised or adapted from the literature to compute the failure cost. A genetic-algorithm-based (GA) approach is proposed to solve the 2E-CVRPSD. A simple encoding and decoding scheme, a modified route copy crossover operator, and a satellite-selection-based mutation operator are devised in this approach. The numerical results show that for all instances, the expected cost of the best 2E-CVRPSD solution found by the proposed approach is not greater than that of the best-known 2E-CVRP solution with an average relative gap of 2.57%. Therefore, the GA-based approach can find high-quality solutions for the 2E-CVRPSD.     

Multistars, partial multistars and the capacitated vehicle routing problem

 In an unpublished paper, Araque, Hall and Magnanti considered polyhedra associated with the Capacitated Vehicle Routing Problem (CVRP) in the special case of unit demands. Among the valid and facet-inducing inequalities presented in that paper were the so-called multistar and partial multistar inequalities, each of which came in several versions. Some related inequalities for the case of general demands have appeared subsequently and the result is a rather bewildering array of apparently different classes of inequalities. The main goal of the present paper is to present two relatively simple procedures that can be used to show the validity of all known (and some new) multistar and partial multistar inequalities, in both the unit and general demand cases. The procedures provide a unifying explanation of the inequalities and, perhaps more importantly, ideas that can be exploited in a cutting plane algorithm for the CVRP. Computational results show that the new inequalities can be useful as cutting planes for certain CVRP instances. Received: January 9, 1999 / Accepted: June 17, 2002 Published online: September 27, 2002 Key Words. vehicle routing – valid inequalities – cutting planes     

Disrupted capacitated vehicle routing problem with order release delay

With the popularity of the just-in-time system, more and more companies are operating with little or no inventories, which make them highly vulnerable to delays on supply. This paper discusses a situation when the supply of the commodity does not arrive at the depot on time, so that not enough of the commodity is available to be loaded on all vehicles at the start of the delivery period. New routing plans need to be developed in such a case to reduce the impact the delay of supply may have on the distribution company. The resulting vehicle routing problem is different from other types of vehicle routing problems as it involves waiting and multiple trips. Two approaches have been developed to solve the order release delay problem, both of which involve a Tabu Search algorithm. Computational results show the proposed approaches can largely reduce the disruption costs that are caused by the delayed supply and they are especially effective when the length of delay is long.