A Hyper Heuristic Algorithm to Solve the Low-Carbon Location Routing Problem

Abstract

This paper proposes a low-carbon location routing problem (LCLRP) model with simultaneous delivery and pick up, time windows, and heterogeneous fleets to reduce the logistics cost and carbon emissions and improve customer satisfaction. The correctness of the model is tested by a simple example of CPLEX (optimization software for mathematical programming). To solve this problem, a hyper-heuristic algorithm is designed based on a secondary exponential smoothing strategy and adaptive receiving mechanism. The algorithm can achieve fast convergence and is highly robust. This case study analyzes the impact of depot distribution and cost, heterogeneous fleets (HF), and customer distribution and time windows on logistics costs, carbon emissions, and customer satisfaction. The experimental results show that the proposed model can reduce logistics costs by 1.72%, carbon emissions by 11.23%, and vehicle travel distance by 9.69%, and show that the proposed model has guiding significance for reducing logistics costs.

Keywords

• regional low-carbon location-routing problem
• time windows
• heterogeneous fleets
• hyper-heuristic