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Exact and heuristic algorithms for solving the generalized vehicle routing problem with flexible fleet size
Author(s) -
Afsar H. Murat,
Prins Christian,
Santos Andréa Cynthia
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
international transactions in operational research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.032
H-Index - 52
eISSN - 1475-3995
pISSN - 0969-6016
DOI - 10.1111/itor.12041
Subject(s) - vehicle routing problem , iterated local search , metaheuristic , mathematical optimization , routing (electronic design automation) , computer science , heuristic , column generation , set (abstract data type) , iterated function , algorithm , mathematics , computer network , mathematical analysis , programming language
The generalized vehicle routing problem with flexible fleet size (GVRP‐flex) extends the classical capacitated vehicle routing problem (CVRP) by partitioning the set of required nodes into clusters and has interesting applications such as humanitarian logistics. The problem aims at minimizing the total cost for a set of routes, such that each cluster is visited exactly once and its total demand is delivered to one of its nodes. An exact method based on column generation (CG) and two metaheuristics derived from iterated local search are proposed for the case with flexible fleet size. On five sets of benchmarks, including a new one, the CG approach often provides good upper and lower bounds, whereas the metaheuristics find, in a few seconds, solutions with small optimality gaps.