Title: Fuzzy stochastic linear programming-based approach for multiple departures single destination multiple travelling salesman problem

Authors: Seyed Gholamreza Jalali Naini; Mohammad Mahdi Paydar; Javid Jouzdani; Mohammad Fathian

Addresses: School of Industrial Engineering, Iran University of Science and Technology, P.O. Box 163-16765, Narmak, Tehran, Iran ' School of Industrial Engineering, Iran University of Science and Technology, P.O. Box 163-16765, Narmak, Tehran, Iran ' School of Industrial Engineering, Iran University of Science and Technology, P.O. Box 163-16765, Narmak, Tehran, Iran ' School of Industrial Engineering, Iran University of Science and Technology, P.O. Box 163-16765, Narmak, Tehran, Iran

Abstract: The multiple departures single destination multiple travelling salesmen problem (MDmTSP) is a problem in which two or more salesmen start from any node of departure and finish their tour by reaching a single specific destination node. In many real-life problems, the decision should be made according to information which is both possibilistically imprecise and probabilistically uncertain. Although consistency indexes provide a union nexus between possibilistic and probabilistic representation of uncertainty, there are no reliable transformations between them. A means to this end is fuzzy stochastic linear programming. In this paper, a realistic environment for MDmTSP with fuzzy stochastic distance between nodes is investigated. To justify the proposed approach and to illustrate its efficiency in real-life problems, a case of employees' bus transport routing problem (EBTRP) is presented.

Keywords: MDmTSP; fuzzy stochastic linear programming; FSLP; bus transport; employee buses; vehicle routing problem; EBTRP; multiple departures; single destination; travelling salesman problem; TSP; multiple travelling salesmen.

DOI: 10.1504/IJOR.2013.054974

International Journal of Operational Research, 2013 Vol.17 No.4, pp.417 - 435

Received: 30 Jan 2012
Accepted: 16 Jun 2012

Published online: 29 Jul 2014 *

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