Title: A dynamic vehicle routing problem based on real-time traffic information

Authors: Xin Zhao, Gilles Goncalves, Remy Dupas

Addresses: School of Transportation, Wuhan University of Technology, 430063, Wuhan, China. ' Univ Lille Nord de France, F-59000 Lille, UArtois, LGI2A, F-62400, Bethune, France. ' IMS CNRS 5218, University of Bordeaux, 351, cours de la Liberation, 33405 Talence Cedex France

Abstract: We treat the dynamic vehicle routing problem with time windows (DVRPTW) in the context of real-time traffic information. We integrate traffic information obtained in real time to change the speed profile according to the accidents on the road network (congestion, etc.). The travel times are based on a time-dependent model in which the travel speeds are step functions. This model is enriched with an exponential smoothing function able to calculate the forecasted speed. The analysis of the results of these experiments shows that our method with real-time traffic information provides a good performance, a better robustness against a simple model with time dependent travel time.

Keywords: dynamic vehicle routing; time windows; DVRPTW; time-dependent models; travel times; real-time information; traffic information; genetic algorithms; GAs; speed profile; road accidents; road networks; traffic congestion; modelling.

DOI: 10.1504/IJICA.2010.036809

International Journal of Innovative Computing and Applications, 2010 Vol.2 No.4, pp.215 - 225

Published online: 09 Nov 2010 *

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