Title: A particle swarm optimisation algorithm for the capacitated location-routing problem

Authors: Jie Liu; Voratas Kachitvichyanukul

Addresses: School of Engineering and Technology, Asian Institute of Technology, P.O. Box 4, Klong Luang, Pathumthani 12120, Thailand ' School of Engineering and Technology, Asian Institute of Technology, P.O. Box 4, Klong Luang, Pathumthani 12120, Thailand

Abstract: This article presents a particle swarm optimisation algorithm for solving a capacitated location routing problem (LRP). Based on the framework of particle swarm optimisation with multiple social learning terms (GLNPSO), a solution representation is designed as a multi-dimensional particle representing depot element and customer element. Each particle is decoded into a solution by using the position of a particle to determine depot location, customer assignment, and route construction. The proposed algorithm is evaluated using a set of benchmark problem instances. The results show that the solution quality is good for large problem instances and a total of nine new best solutions are found. Additional performance indices are also proposed as additional indicators to assess the operational performance of the location selection and route forming decisions.

Keywords: location routing problem; capacitated LRP; PSO; particle swarm optimisation; social learning terms; solution representation; decoding; depot location; customer assignment; route construction.

DOI: 10.1504/IJOR.2015.071494

International Journal of Operational Research, 2015 Vol.24 No.2, pp.184 - 213

Received: 21 May 2013
Accepted: 28 Sep 2013
Published online: 31 Aug 2015 *

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