Bruce L. Golden

The vehicle routing problem : latest advances and new challenges

Overviews and Surveys.- Routing a Heterogeneous Fleet of Vehicles.- A Decade of Capacitated Arc Routing.- Inventory Routing.- The Period Vehicle Routing Problem and its Extensions.- The Split Delivery Vehicle Routing Problem: A Survey.- Challenges and Advances in A Priori Routing.- Metaheuristics for the Vehicle Routing Problem and Its Extensions: A Categorized Bibliography.- Parallel Solution Methods for Vehicle Routing Problems.- Recent Developments in Dynamic Vehicle Routing Systems.- New Directions in Modeling and Algorithms.- Online Vehicle Routing Problems: A Survey.- Modeling and Solving the Capacitated Vehicle Routing Problem on Trees.- Using a Genetic Algorithm to Solve the Generalized Orienteering Problem.- An Integer Linear Programming Local Search for Capacitated Vehicle Routing Problems.- Robust Branch-Cut-and-Price Algorithms for Vehicle Routing Problems.- Recent Models and Algorithms for One-to-One Pickup and Delivery Problems.- One-to-Many-to-One Single Vehicle Pickup and Delivery Problems.- Challenges and Opportunities in Attended Home Delivery.- Chvatal-Gomory Rank-1 Cuts Used in a Dantzig-Wolfe Decomposition of the Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Windows.- Vehicle Routing Problems with Inter-Tour Resource Constraints.- From Single-Objective to Multi-Objective Vehicle Routing Problems: Motivations, Case Studies, and Methods.- Practical Applications.- Vehicle Routing for Small Package Delivery and Pickup Services.- Advances in Meter Reading: Heuristic Solution of the Close Enough Traveling Salesman Problem over a Street Network.- Multiperiod Planning and Routing on a Rolling Horizon for Field Force Optimization Logistics.- Health Care Logistics, Emergency Preparedness, and Disaster Relief: New Challenges for Routing Problems with a Focus on the Austrian Situation.- Vehicle Routing Problems and Container Terminal Operations - An Update of Research.

The orienteering problem

Orienteering is a sport in which start and end points are specified along with other locations. These other locations have associated scores. Competitors seek to visit, in a fixed amount of time, a subset of these locations on the way from the start point to the end point in order to maximize the total score. An effective center-of-gravity heuristic is presented that outperforms heuristics from the literature.

Capacitated arc routing problems

A capacitated node routing problem, known as the vehicle routing or dispatch problem, has been the focus of much research attention. On the other hand, capacitated arc routing problems have been comparatively neglected. Both classes of problems are extremely rich in theory and applications. Our intent in this paper is to define a capacitated arc routing problem, to provide mathematical programming formulations, to perform a computational complexity analysis, and to present an approximate solution strategy for this class of problems. In addition, we identify several related routing problems and develop tight lower bounds on the optimal solution.

Designing and reporting on computational experiments with heuristic methods

This article discusses the design of computational experiments to test heuristic methods and provides reporting guidelines for such experimentation. The goal is to promote thoughtful, well-planned, and extensive testing of heuristics, full disclosure of experimental conditions, and integrity in and reproducibility of the reported results.

The fleet size and mix vehicle routing problem

Abstract In this paper, we address the problem of routing a fleet of vehicles from a central depot to customers with known demand. Routes originate and terminate at the central depot and obey vehicle capacity restrictions. Typically, researchers assume that all vehicles are identical. In this work, we relax the homogeneous fleet assumption. The objective is to determine optimal fleet size and mix by minimizing a total cost function which includes fixed cost and variable cost components. We describe several efficient heuristic solution procedures as well as techniques for generating a lower bound and an underestimate of the optimal solution. Finally, we present some encouraging computational results and suggestions for further study.

The team orienteering problem

In the team orienteering problem, start and end points are specified along with other locations which have associated scores. Given a fixed amount of time for each of the M members of the team, the goal is to determine M paths from the start point to the end point through a subset of locations in order to maximize the total score. In this paper, a fast and effective heuristic is presented and tested on 353 problems ranging in size from 21 to 102 points. The computational results are presented in detail.

Implementing Vehicle Routing Algorithms

Heuristic programming algorithms frequently address large problems and require manipulation and operation on massive data sets. The algorithms can be improved by using efficient data structures. With this in mind, we consider heuristic algorithms for vehicle routing, comparing techniques of Clarke and Wright, Gillett and Miller, and Tyagi, and presenting modifications and extensions which permit problems involving hundreds of demand points to be solved in a matter of seconds. In addition, a multi-depot routing algorithm is developed. The results are illustrated with a routing study for an urban newspaper with an evening circulation exceeding 100,000.

Computational experiments with algorithms for a class of routing problems

Abstract The vehicle routing problem, a generalization of the infamous traveling salesman problem, is a well-known distribution management problem that has been the focus of much research attention. On the other hand, generalizations of arc routing problems, such as the Chinese postman problem, have been comparatively neglected. In a recent paper, we studied a class of capacitated arc routing problems from primarily a theoretical point of view. In this paper, we focus on the development and testing of algorithms for solving the capacitated Chinese postman problem. Extensive computational results are presented and analyzed.

Approximate Traveling Salesman Algorithms

There have been a multitude of heuristic algorithms proposed for the solution of large scale traveling salesman problems. Our intent in this paper is to examine some of these well known heuristics, to introduce some new heuristics, and to compare these approximate techniques on the basis of efficiency and accuracy. We emphasize the strengths and weaknesses of each algorithm tested. One of our major conclusions is that it is not difficult to get within 2–3% of optimality using a composite heuristic which requires on the order of n3 computations where n is the number of nodes in the network.

Stochastic vehicle routing: A comprehensive approach

Abstract A vehicle routing problem is stochastic when the demands at individual delivery (pickup) locations behave as random variables, and the routes must be defined before the values of these random variables become known. This paper presents several formulations and heuristic algorithms for solving this complex problem.