INTEGRATING PATH PLANNING,ROUTING, AND SCHEDULING FOR LOGISTICS OPERATIONS IN MANUFACTURING FACILITIES

This article considers the following manufacturing/logistics problem: an autonomous vehicle (AV) is requested to serve a set of pickup and delivery (P/D) stations in the shop floor of a modern factory providing P/D tasks while moving safely (i.e., avoiding any collision with obstacles) in its environment. A two-sided time window associated with each P/D station brackets the service time to within a specified interval. A tour for AV is considered legal if it (a) is collision free, (b) passes through each P/D station exactly once, and (c) satisfies the service time restrictions imposed by the P/D stations. A legal tour always starts and ends at a depot. The problem is thereby dual NP-hard because it combines the characteristics of path planning and those of vehicle routing and scheduling problems. The objective is to determine the shortest possible legal tour for AV. A new method is introduced to solve the problem accomplished in two successive phases: first, AV's environment is mapped into a 2D B-spline surface embedded in 3D Euclidean space using a robust geometric model. Then, the generated surface is searched using a genetic algorithm for an optimum legal tour that satisfies the requirements of the vehicle's mission. The performance of the proposed method is investigated and discussed through characteristic simulated experiments.     

基于剩余装载能力的蚁群算法求解同时送取货车辆路径问题

建立了带车辆最大行程约束的同时送取货车辆路径问题的混合整数规划模型; 采用了基于排序的蚂蚁系统和最大最小蚂蚁系统的信息素更新策略; 设计了基于车辆剩余装载能力的启发信息策略, 可在满足车辆负载的限制下, 提高车辆的负载利用率; 并在改进阶段使用了节点交换的局部搜索策略,以提高算法收敛速度. 仿真结果表明本文算法能够在可接受的计算时间内得到满意解.     

Perturbation heuristics for the pickup and delivery traveling salesman problem

This article describes and compares seven perturbation heuristics for the Pickup and Delivery Traveling Salesman Problem (PDTSP). In this problem, a shortest Hamiltonian cycle is sought through a depot and several pickup and delivery pairs. Perturbation heuristics are diversification schemes which help a local search process move away from a local optimum. Three such schemes have been implemented and compared: Instance Perturbation, Algorithmic Perturbation, and Solution Perturbation. Computational results on PDTSP instances indicate that the latter scheme yields the best results. On instances for which the optimum is known, it consistently produces optimal or near-optimal solutions.Scope and purposeIn several distribution management contexts, it is necessary to construct a shortest tour starting at a depot and making several pickup and deliveries. In the Traveling Salesman Problem with Pickup and Delivery, to each pickup point is associated a delivery point later in the tour. Like several routing problems, the PDTSP is very hard to solve to optimality and local search heuristics often get trapped in local optima. Perturbation heuristics provide a means of escaping from local optima. This paper describes and compares three types of perturbation heuristic. It shows that the best scheme consistently yields high-quality solutions.     

Two solution representations for solving multi-depot vehicle routing problem with multiple pickup and delivery requests via PSO

Two solution representations for solving the generalized multi-depot vehicle routing problem with multiple pickup and delivery requests (GVRP-MDMPDR) is presented in this paper. The representations are used in conjunction with GLNPSO, a variant of PSO with multiple social learning terms. The computational experiments are carried out using benchmark test instances for pickup and delivery problem with time windows (PDPTW) and the generalized vehicle routing problem for multi-depot with multiple pickup and delivery requests (GVRP-MDMPDR). The preliminary results illustrate that the proposed method is capable of providing good solutions for most of the test problems.     

有软时窗约束带取送作业的车辆路径问题及其禁忌搜索算法研究

有软时窗约束带取送作业的车辆路径问题是在基本的车辆路径问题上增加了取送作业和时间窗约束的一种变化形式,是一个典型的NP-难问题.本文建立了问题模型,运用改进的禁忌搜索算法测试了根据实际状况构造的一个大规模算例.快速获得的高质量解验证了模型的正确性和算法性能的优良性.     

The single vehicle routing problem with deliveries and selective pickups

The single vehicle routing problem with deliveries and selective pickups (SVRPDSP) is defined on a graph in which pickup and delivery demands are associated with customer vertices. The difference between this problem and the single vehicle routing problem with pickups and deliveries (SVRPPD) lies in the fact that it is no longer necessary to satisfy all pickup demands. In the SVRPDSP a pickup revenue is associated with each vertex, and the pickup demand at that vertex will be collected only if it is profitable to do so. The net cost of a route is equal to the sum of routing costs, minus the total collected revenue. The aim is to design a vehicle route of minimum net cost, visiting each customer, performing all deliveries, and a subset of the pickups. A mixed integer linear programming formulation is proposed for the SVRPDSP. Classical construction and improvement heuristics, as well as a tabu search heuristic (TS), are developed and tested on a number of instances derived from VRPLIB. Computational results show that the solutions produced by the proposed heuristics are near-optimal. There is also some evidence that the best solutions identified by the heuristics are frequently non-Hamiltonian and may contain one or two customers visited twice.     

基于遗传算法的集送一体化的车辆路径问题

有时间窗的集送货一体化的车辆路径问题(VRPPDTW)是对经典的车辆路径问题(VRP)的扩展,是一类重要的组合优化问题,但是目前对该问题的研究非常有限。论文采用了新的染色体编码方法,设计了遗传算法对该问题进行求解。在求解过程中,对集送一体化、多种配送车辆类型的问题进行了有效处理,同时考虑了车辆载重量和时间窗等约束。最后的实验结果表明,该算法可以求得这类车辆路径问题的最优解或次优解。     

A variable neighborhood search heuristic algorithm for the double vehicle routing problem with multiple stacks

This paper addresses the double vehicle routing problem with multiple stacks (DVRPMS) in which a fleet of vehicles must collect items in a pickup region and then travel to a delivery region where all items are delivered. The load compartment of all vehicles is divided into rows (horizontal stacks) of fixed profundity (horizontal heights), and on each row, the unloading process must respect the last‐in‐first‐out policy. The objective of the DVRPMS is to find optimal routes visiting all pickup and delivery points while ensuring the feasibility of the vehicle loading plans. We propose a new integer linear programming formulation, which was useful to find inconsistencies in the results of exact algorithms proposed in the literature, and a variable neighborhood search based algorithm that was able to find solutions with same or higher quality in shorter computational time for most instances when compared to the methods already present in the literature.     

考虑动态平衡装卸的点对点取送货车辆路径优化

针对点对点取送货车辆路径优化问题,引入动态平衡、后进先出、三维装载等约束,以总路径最短为优化目标,构建多车多客户应用场景下的动态平衡装卸点对点取送货车辆路径优化模型;基于研究问题的特征,采用启发式插入法确定路径初始方案,设计节点交换和重新定位算子,构造路径邻域方案,并将动态平衡装卸纳入路径迭代过程,运用多重指标定序策略和三分空间策略,设计客户动态平衡装卸检算算法,并提出基于禁忌搜索的点对点取送货车辆路径优化算法,制订多车多客户取送货车辆路径方案的同时编制动态平衡装载方案。最后,通过标准算例验证方法的有效性,计算表明：所提方法能高效解决带动态平衡约束的点对点取送货车辆路径优化问题;在多车多客户应用场景下具有更强的寻优能力,求解效率更高。     

离散灰狼优化算法求解VRPSPDTW问题

本文针对带时间窗约束的同时送取货车辆路径问题,建立了以总配送距离最小化为目标的数学模型.根据模型的特征,在保留灰狼算法(GWO)搜索机制的基础上,提出了离散灰狼优化算法(DGWO)进行求解.采用多种策略构建种群的初始解,并允许出现不可行解,扩大种群的搜索区域;引入带评分策略的邻域搜索策略,调整每种算子的概率,使算法选择优化效果更好的算子;使用移除-插入机制,对优质解区域进行探索,加速种群的收敛.在仿真实验中对标准数据集进行了测试,将实验结果和p-SA算法、DCS算法、VNS-BSTS算法和SA-ALNS算法进行了对比,实验表明DGWO算法能有效地解决带时间窗约束的同时送取货车辆路径问题.     

Multi-start simulated annealing heuristic for the location routing problem with simultaneous pickup and delivery

The location routing problem with simultaneous pickup and delivery (LRPSPD) is a new variant of the location routing problem (LRP). The objective of LRPSPD is to minimize the total cost of a distribution system including vehicle traveling cost, depot opening cost, and vehicle fixed cost by locating the depots and determining the vehicle routes to simultaneously satisfy the pickup and the delivery demands of each customer. LRPSPD is NP-hard since its special case, LRP, is NP-hard. Thus, this study proposes a multi-start simulated annealing (MSA) algorithm for solving LRPSPD which incorporates multi-start hill climbing strategy into simulated annealing framework. The MSA algorithm is tested on 360 benchmark instances to verify its performance. Results indicate that the multi-start strategy can significantly enhance the performance of traditional single-start simulated annealing algorithm. Our MSA algorithm is very effective in solving LRPSPD compared to existing solution approaches. It obtained 206 best solutions out of the 360 benchmark instances, including 126 new best solutions.     

A tabu search heuristic for the single vehicle pickup and delivery problem with time windows

The single vehicle pickup and delivery problem with time windows is a generalization of the traveling salesman problem. In such a problem, a number of transportation requests have to be satisfied by one vehicle, each request having constraints to respect: a pickup at its origin and a delivery at its destination, and a time window at each location. The capacity of the vehicle has to be respected. The aim is to minimize the total distance traveled by the vehicle. A number of exact and approximate solution methods exists in the literature, but to the authors knowledge none of them make use of metaheuristics, still promising with other vehicle routing problems. In this paper we present tabu search and probabilistic tabu search. Results obtained on classical traveling salesman problems and a class of randomly generated instances indicate that our approach often produces optimal solutions in a relatively short execution time.     

Integrating territory design and routing problems

An integrated model combining territorial design and vehicle routing is presented. For the routing problem, the simultaneous pickup and delivery is considered subject to time windows, while districting is aimed at minimizing the length of the longest zone of the route. A corresponding mixed integer programming model is considered and the results of the numerical experiment are provided.     

A hybrid GRASP/VND heuristic for the one-commodity pickup-and-delivery traveling salesman problem

We address in this paper the one-commodity pickup-and-delivery traveling salesman problem, which is characterized by a set of customers, each of them supplying (pickup customer) or demanding (delivery customer) a given amount of a single product. The objective is to design a minimum cost Hamiltonian route for a capacitated vehicle in order to transport the product from the pickup to the delivery customers. The vehicle starts the route from a depot, and its initial load also has to be determined. We propose a hybrid algorithm that combines the GRASP and VND metaheuristics. Our heuristic is compared with other approximate algorithms described in Hernández-Pérez and Salazar-González [Heuristics for the one-commodity pickup-and-delivery traveling salesman problem. Transportation Science 2004;38:245–55]. Computational experiments on benchmark instances reveal that our hybrid method yields better results than the previously proposed approaches.     

A heuristic algorithm for a single vehicle static bike sharing rebalancing problem

The static bike rebalancing problem (SBRP) concerns the task of repositioning bikes among stations in self-service bike-sharing systems. This problem can be seen as a variant of the one-commodity pickup and delivery vehicle routing problem, where multiple visits are allowed to be performed at each station, i.e., the demand of a station is allowed to be split. Moreover, a vehicle may temporarily drop its load at a station, leaving it in excess or, alternatively, collect more bikes from a station (even all of them), thus leaving it in default. Both cases require further visits in order to meet the actual demands of such station. This paper deals with a particular case of the SBRP, in which only a single vehicle is available and the objective is to find a least-cost route that meets the demand of all stations and does not violate the minimum (zero) and maximum (vehicle capacity) load limits along the tour. Therefore, the number of bikes to be collected or delivered at each station must be appropriately determined in order to respect such constraints. We propose an iterated local search (ILS) based heuristic to solve the problem. The ILS algorithm was tested on 980 benchmark instances from the literature and the results obtained are competitive when compared to other existing methods. Moreover, our heuristic was capable of finding most of the known optimal solutions and also of improving the results on a number of open instances.     

Vehicle routing with pick-up and delivery: tour-partitioning heuristics

Many applications of the classical vehicle routing problem involve pick-up and delivery services between the depot and peripheral locations (warehouses, stores, stations). This paper studies an important version of the vehicle routing problem with pick-up and delivery (the so-called delivery and backhaul problem): delivery in our case refers to transportation of goods from the depot to customers, and pick-up (backhaul) refers to shipment from customers to the depot. The objective is to find a set of vehicle routes that service customers such that vehicle capacity is not violated and the total distance traveled is minimized. Tour partitioning heuristics for solving the capacitated vehicle routing problem are based on breaking a basic tour into disjoint segments served by different vehicles. This idea is adapted for solving the delivery and backhaul problem. Two heuristics that focus on efficient utilization of vehicles’ capacities are introduced, analyzed and tested numerically.     

A branch-and-price-and-check model for the vehicle routing problem with location congestion

This paper considers a vehicle routing problem with pickup and delivery, time windows and location congestion. Locations provide a number of cumulative resources that are utilized by vehicles either during service (e.g., forklifts) or for the entirety of their visit (e.g., parking bays). Locations can become congested if insufficient resources are available, upon which vehicles must wait until a resource becomes available before proceeding. The problem is challenging from a computational standpoint since it incorporates the vehicle routing problem and the resource-constrained project scheduling problem. The main contribution of this paper is a branch-and-price-and-check model that uses a branch-and-price algorithm that solves the underlying vehicle routing problem, and a constraint programming subproblem that checks the feasibility of the location resource constraints, and then adds combinatorial nogood cuts to the master problem if the resource constraints are violated. Experimental results show the benefits of the branch-and-price-and-check approach.     

Multidepot pickup and delivery problems in multiple regions: a typology and integrated model

The rapid development experienced by the transportation industry in the past decades has led to many configurations of networks and therefore to an explosion of variants in transportation problems, motivating researchers to look at broader logistic problems, beyond the basic vehicle routing problems. This work introduces a new type of problem scenario combining various attributes: a pickup and delivery problem with multiple regions, multiple depots, and multiple transportation modes. We provide definitions, a literature review, and a step‐by‐step construction of the mathematical models from a simple and well‐known scenario to the multiregion multidepot pickup and delivery problem (MR‐MDPDP). For each step the relevant literature is examined. Furthermore, we suggest possible extensions for prospective research.     

A matheuristic based on large neighborhood search for the vehicle routing problem with cross-docking

The vehicle routing problem with cross-docking (VRPCD) consists in defining a set of routes that satisfy transportation requests between a set of pickup points and a set of delivery points. The vehicles bring goods from pickup locations to a cross-docking platform, where the items may be consolidated for efficient delivery. In this paper we propose a new solution methodology for this problem. It is based on large neighborhood search and periodically solving a set partitioning and matching problem with third-party solvers. Our method improves the best known solution in 19 of 35 instances from the literature.     

具有同时集送货需求车辆路径问题的混沌量子进化算法研究

针对量子进化算法中旋转角取值的离散性使其解空间的搜索具有跳跃性,提出了基于混沌理论的精英均值计算旋转角算法,并将其应用于具有同时集送货需求车辆路径问题的求解.在理论上分析了解的强可行和弱可行条件的基础上,使用启发式算子对解进行改进.通过仿真实验与其他算法进行了比较,仿真结果表明所提出算法是求解此类问题的有效方法.