Research

Topics in IE &
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A TABU SEARCH ALGORITHM FOR
THE TIME DEPENDENT VEHICLE ROUTING PROBLEM WITH TIME
WINDOWS

Alper SARICIOĞLU
INTRODUCTION
• What is VRP, VRPTW, TDVRPTW?
• Time Dependent Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Windows

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What is VRP, VRPTW, TDVRPTW?
• VRP is proposed by G. B. Dantzig and J. H. Ramser,
named as «The Truck Dispatching Problem» in October
1959.

• A combinatorial optimization and integer programming

problem seeking to service a number of customers with
a fleet of vehicles.

• Considered as a generalization of the Traveling-

Salesman Problem (TSP).

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 What is VRP, VRPTW, TDVRPTW?

«The shortest routes between any two points in the system are given and a demand
for one or several products is specified for a number of stations within the
distribution system.»

The Truck Dispatching Problem, G. B. Dantzig and J. H. Ramser; Management Science, Vol. 6, No. 1 (Oct., 1959), pp. 80-91
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What is VRP, VRPTW, TDVRPTW?
Types of VRP’s,
• Vehicle Routing Problem with Pickup and Delivery (VRPPD)
Vehicle Routing Problem with LIFO
• Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Windows (VRPTW)
• Capacitated Vehicle Routing Problem (with or without Time
Windows): CVRP or CVRPTW.
• Vehicle Routing Problem with Multiple Trips (VRPMT)
• Multi-depot vehicle routing problem (MDVRP)
• VRP with Simultaneous Delivery and Pick-up (VRPSDP)
• Open vehicle routing problem (OVRP)
• Time Dependent Vehicle Routing Problem with Time
Windows (TDVRPTW)

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Time Dependent Vehicle Routing
Problem with Time Windows

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Time Dependent Vehicle Routing
Problem with Time Windows

Time Dependency refers to changing travel times / distances (costs)

due to traffic conditions.
The delivery locations have time windows within which the
deliveries (or visits) must be made and travel speeds or
distances between locations are changing over time.
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Time Dependent Vehicle Routing
Problem with Time Windows
Travel Speed and Travel Time Distances with changing travel
over time speeds over time

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Time Dependent Vehicle Routing
Problem with Time Windows

Time period changes here

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SOLUTION APPROACH
• Exact Solution Methods and Complexity
• Meta-Heuristics
• Start Time Optimization
• VRPTW Benchmark Problems
• Future Works

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Exact Solution Methods and
Complexity
• Even finding a feasible solution to the VRPTW with a
fixed fleet size is itself an NP-complete problem.

• Due to its complexity, all existing solutions to the

TDVRPTW are based on (meta-) heuristics and no exact
methods are known for this problem.

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Exact Solution Methods and
Complexity
Why TDVRPTW is much harder than VRPTW

• The cost between locations is unknown unless

departure time is determined.

• Departure time from a node (including starting node)

affects successor arcs’ cost and feasibility.

• The capacity of each vehicle is not exceeded and the

demand of each customer is satisfied.
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Meta-heuristics
• Meta-heuristics are strategies that guide the search
process.
• The goal is to efficiently explore the search space in
order to find near–optimal solutions.
• Techniques which constitute meta-heuristic algorithms
range from simple local search procedures to complex
learning processes.
• Meta-heuristic algorithms are approximate and usually
non-deterministic.
• Meta-heuristics are not problem-specific.

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Tabu Search
• Local or neighborhood search
procedure to iteratively move from
one potential solution ! to an
improved solution !′ in the
neighborhood of !, until some
stopping criterion has been satisfied.
• Tabu list is a short-term set of the
solutions that have been visited in the
recent past (less than iterations ago).

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Insertion Heuristics
• Sequential, tour-building heuristics.
• Initializes every route using one of several criteria.

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Tabu Search

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2-opt* Step

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Or-opt Step

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 Start Time Optimization

• Departure Time and Speed Optimization on Fixed Routes

is a studied subject.
• In this work we will change starting time in iterations, not
after all routes have been determined.

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MetaOpt Framework

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 VRPTW Benchmark Problems

• Solomon Instances
• Six sets of problems
• Highlights several factors that affect the behavior of routing and
scheduling algorithms
• Used widely for benchmarking
• Modified to TDVRPTW as Figliozzi suggested for benchmarking 21
 VRPTW Benchmark Problems

• Solomon Instances
• Six sets of problems
• Highlights several factors that affect the behavior of routing and
scheduling algorithms
• Used widely for benchmarking
• Modified to TDVRPTW as Figliozzi suggested for benchmarking 22
Future Works
• Modifications for Asymmetrical Data

• Travel Speed – Carbon Emission Modifications

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Thank you

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