A two stage method for VRP based on the improved ant colony algorithm Online publication date: Thu, 31-Jul-2014
by Yong Liu; Sheng Wang; Fangmin Dong; Dong Ren
International Journal of Modelling, Identification and Control (IJMIC), Vol. 18, No. 2, 2013
Abstract: A two stage method for the VRP based on the improved ant colony algorithm is proposed in this paper. On the first stage of the method, a simplified ant colony algorithm is used to divide all the material demand locations into several groups for each vehicle, and different division ways of the material demand locations can be obtained effectively, then saving algorithm is used to assess all division ways, some better division ways are chosen. On the second stage, the improved ant colony algorithm is applied in solving the travelling salesman problems in those better division ways, then the solutions of the TSP are combined together to be the best solution of the VRP corresponding with the division way. Every solution is compared with each other, the best one is the last solution of the VRP got from the two stage method. Finally, the effectiveness and superiority are verified through two cases.
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