Heuristics for the Real-time Pickup-and-Delivery Travelling Salesman Problem
by Ch. S.N. Chandra Sunil Kumar, T.T. Narendran
International Journal of Logistics Systems and Management (IJLSM), Vol. 4, No. 1, 2008

Abstract: Vehicle Routing Problems (VRP) under static conditions have been studied for well over four decades. The rapid advances in technology and the present market dynamics have now made it imperative for the dynamic version of the VRP to be addressed. This paper considers the dynamic version of the Pickup-and-Delivery Travelling Salesman Problem (PDTSP). Express couriers, dial-a-ride systems, and partial-truck-load carriers are examples of this class of the Travelling Salesman Problem (TSP). Here, we model the single vehicle problem as a PDTSP. We propose two heuristics with different approaches for solving the dynamic sub-problem online. The static sub-problem is solved using the farthest insertion heuristic. The first heuristic employs an insertion procedure to solve the online problem while the second uses the branch-and-cut procedure of CPLEX. The heuristics are validated using computational studies, which show that the distances travelled increases linearly with the Degree of Dynamism. The low computational times taken by the heuristics make them suitable for real-time application.

Online publication date: Sun, 02-Dec-2007

The full text of this article is only available to individual subscribers or to users at subscribing institutions.

 
Existing subscribers:
Go to Inderscience Online Journals to access the Full Text of this article.

Pay per view:
If you are not a subscriber and you just want to read the full contents of this article, buy online access here.

Complimentary Subscribers, Editors or Members of the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Logistics Systems and Management (IJLSM):
Login with your Inderscience username and password:

Username:        Password:          Forgotten your password?

Want to subscribe?
A subscription gives you complete access to all articles in the current issue, as well as to all articles in the previous three years (where applicable). See our Orders page to subscribe.

If you still need assistance, please email subs@inderscience.com