Multi Depot Vehicle Routing Using Ant Colony Optimization - Trip Assignment of Freight Flow Using Modified Gravity Model: Special case of CPEC – Flagship of Belt and Road Initiative (BRI)

Abstract

Various optimization techniques have been used to solve Traffic Assignment problem, similarly different variants of Gravity Model have been used to generate the trips across the network. This paper presents a unique methodology of combining both techniques and presents a holistic framework of managing Transportation Corridors that emerged due to combining these two proven techniques with slight modifications. Modified Gravity Model (MGM) successfully predicted and generated the trips across a corridor, and Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) helped assign Trips. The data used has been obtained from a real-life Corridor and the results have been verified using statistics from the national authorities managing the corridor. Specific case of China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) has been considered and modeled in Simio, Matlab and QGIS.