Title: Nested particle swarm optimisation for multi-depot vehicle routing problem

Authors: S. Geetha; G. Poonthalir; P.T. Vanathi

Addresses: Department of Mathematics and Computer Applications, PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore 641004, Tamilnadu, India ' Department of Mathematics and Computer Applications, PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore 641004, Tamilnadu, India ' Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore 641004, Tamilnadu, India

Abstract: Vehicle routing problem (VRP) is a well-known non-deterministic polynomial hard problem in operations research. VRP is more suited for applications having one warehouse. A variant of VRP called as multi-depot vehicle routing problem (MDVRP) has more than one warehouse. Cluster first and route second is the methodology used for solving MDVRP. An improved k-means algorithm is proposed for clustering that reduces the MDVRP to multiple VRP. In this work, MDVRP is considered with more than one objective and nested particle swarm optimisation with genetic operators is proposed for solving each VRP. Master particle swarm optimisation forms the group within each cluster. Slave particle swarm optimisation generates the route for each group. The objective of MDVRP is to minimise the total travel length along with route and load balance among the depots and vehicles. The results obtained are better in balancing load, route length and the number of vehicles, rather than minimisation of total cost.

Keywords: improved k-means algorithm; NPSO; nested PSO; particle swarm optimisation; genetic operators; local exchange; MDVRP; multi-depot vehicle routing problem; home delivery pharmacy programme; waste collection management.

DOI: 10.1504/IJOR.2013.052336

International Journal of Operational Research, 2013 Vol.16 No.3, pp.329 - 348

Published online: 29 Jul 2014 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article