A metaheuristic solution approach to capacitied vehicle routing and network optimization

Abstract

The vehicle routing problem (VRP) is one of the problem types that are sought after for a long time by trying out different techniques and attracting attention in terms of optimization. In most VRP types, route cost is associated with distance, and a shorter distance solution is considered a more successful solution. While the shortest distance goal provides significant advantages in terms of cost and time to businesses, this makes it attractive for further research. When examining the types of problems having different directions and areas devised from different points of view on vehicle routing, it can be said that the closest approach to practical application is the vehicle routing problem with simultaneous delivery and pickup (VRPSDP). In this study, a solution proposal is presented for the VRPSDP using the Artificial Bee Colony (ABC) algorithm and the application is tested with the benchmark problem data sets commonly used for VRPSDP in the literature. When the results are compared with the least cost route solutions in the literature, it is observed that despite the few parameters, the proposed method can produce low-cost solutions very close to the most successful solutions in the literature. Keywords: Vehicle routing problem, Optimization, Artificial Bee Colony algorithm