Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Book cover

Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Soft Computing for Problem Solving (SocProS 2012), December 28-30, 2012 pp 39–50Cite as

Use of Ant Colony System in Solving Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Window Constraints

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:

Part of the book series: Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing ((AISC,volume 236))

Abstract

Vehicle routing problem with time window constraints (VRPTW) is an extension of the original vehicle routing problem (VRP). It is a well-known NP-hard problem which has several real-life applications. Meta-heuristics have been often tried to solve VRTPW problem. In this paper, an attempt has been made to develop a suitable version of Ant colony optimization heuristic to efficiently solve VRPTW problem. Experimentation with the developed version of Ant colony optimization has shown that it succeeds in general in obtaining results obtained with earlier version and often even better than the results that are better than the corresponding results available in literature which have been obtained using even previously developed hybridized versions of ACO. In many cases, the obtained results are comparable with the best results available in literature.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   259.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD   329.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

References

  1. Andres, F.M.: An iterative route construction and improvement algorithm for the vehicle routing problem with soft time windows. Transp. Res. Part B 43, 438–447 (2010)

    Google Scholar 

  2. Azi, N., Gendreau, M., Potvin, J.Y.: An exact algorithm for a vehicle routing problem with time windows and multiple use of vehicles. Eur. J. Oper. Res. 202(3), 756–763 (2010)

    Article  MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  3. Balseiro, S.R., Loiseau, I., Ramone, J.: An ant colony algorithm hybridized with insertion heuristics for the time dependent vehicle routing problem with time windows. Comput. Oper. Res. 38, 954–966 (2011)

    Article  MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  4. Bell, J.E., McMullen, P.R.: Ant colony optimization techniques for the vehicle routing problem. Adv. Eng. Inform. 18, 41–48 (2004)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Best solutions to Solomon problems identified by heuristics. (SINTEF VRP page): http://www.sintef.no/static/am/opti/projects/top/vrp/bknown.html

  6. Bianchessi, N., Righini, G.: Heuristic algorithms for the vehicle routing problem with simultaneous pick-up and delivery. Comput. Oper. Res. 34, 578–594 (2007)

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  7. Bräysy, O.: Local search and variable neighborhood search algorithms for the vehicle routing problem with time windows. University of Vaasa, Finland, Doctoral Dissertation (2001)

    Google Scholar 

  8. Chabrier, A.: Vehicle routing problem with elementary shortest path based column generation. Comput. Oper. Res. 33(10), 2972–2990 (2006)

    Article  MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  9. Chen, C.-H., et al.: A hybrid ant colony system for vehicle routing problem with time windows. J. East. Asia Soc. Transp. Stud. 6, 2822–2836 (2005)

    Google Scholar 

  10. Cook, W., Rich, J.L.: A parallel cutting plane algorithm for the vehicle routing problem with time windows. Working Paper of Computational and Applied Mathematics, Rice University, Houston, TX (1999)

    Google Scholar 

  11. Donati, A.V., et al.: Time dependent vehicle routing problem. Eur. J. Oper. Res. (2006). doi:10.1016/j.ejor.06.047

    Google Scholar 

  12. Dorigo, M., Birattari, M., Stützle, T.: Ant colony optimization: Artificial ants as a computational intelligence technique. IEEE Comput. Intell. Mag. 1, 28–39 (2006)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Dorigo, M., Blum, C.: Ant colony optimization theory: A survey. Theor. Comput. Sci. 334, 243–278 (2005)

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  14. Dorigo, M., Gambardella, L.M.: Ant colony system: A cooperative learning approach to the traveling salesman problem. IEEE Trans. Evol. Comput. 1, 53–66 (1997)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Dorigo, M., Maniezzo, V., Colorni, A.: Ant system: Optimization by a colony of cooperating agents. IEEE Trans. Syst. Man Cybern. Part B. Cybern. 26, 29–41 (1996)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Gambardella, L.M., Taillard, E., Agazzi, G.: MACS-VRPTW: A Multiple Ant Colony System for Vehicle Routing Problems with Time Windows New Ideas in Optimization. McGraw-Hill, London (1999)

    Google Scholar 

  17. Garcia-Najera, A., Bullinaria, J.A.: An improved multi-objective evolutionary algorithm for the vehicle routing problem with time windows. Comput. Oper. Res. 38(1), 287–300 (2011)

    Article  MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  18. Irnich, S., Villeneuv, D.: The shortest path problem with k-cycle elimination (k \(>\) 3): Improving a branch-and-price algorithm for the VRPTW INFORMS. J. Comput. 18(3), 391–406 (2003)

    Google Scholar 

  19. Kallehauge, B., Larsen, J., Madsen, O.B.G.: Lagrangean duality and non-differentiable optimization applied on routing with time windows. Comput. Oper. Res. 33(5), 1464–1487 (2006)

    Article  MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  20. Kohl, N., Desrosiers, J., Madsen, O.B.G., Solomon, M.M., Soumis, F.: 2-path cuts for the vehicle routing problem with time windows. Transp. Sci. 33(1), 101–116 (1999)

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  21. Laporate, G.: The vehicle routing problem: An overview of exact and approximate algorithms. Eur. J. Oper. Res. 59, 345–358 (1997)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Laporte, G.: Fifty years of vehicle routing. Transp. Sci. 43, 408–416 (2011)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. Larsen J.: Parallelization of the vehicle routing problem with time windows. Ph.D. thesis IMM-PHD-1999-62, Department of Mathematical Modelling, Technical University of Enmark, Lyngby, Denmark (1999)

    Google Scholar 

  24. Lau, H.C., et al.: Vehicle routing problem with time windows and a limited number of vehicles. Eur. J. Oper. Res. 148, 559–569 (2003)

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  25. Ma, X.: Vehicle routing problem with time windows based on improved ant colony algorithm. In Proceedings of IEEE Computer Society Second International Conference on Information Technology and Computer Science, Washington, DC, USA, pp. 94–97 (2010)

    Google Scholar 

  26. Masrom, S., Nasir, A.M., Abidin, S.Z., Rahman, A.S.A.: Software framework for vehicle routing problem with hybrid metaheuristic algorithms. In Proceedings of the Applied Computing Conference, Angers, pp. 55–61 (2011)

    Google Scholar 

  27. Mester, D.: An evolutionary strategies algorithm for large scale vehicle routing problem with capacitate and time windows restrictions. In Proceedings of the Conference on Mathematical and Population Genetics, University of Haifa, Israel (2002)

    Google Scholar 

  28. Qi, C., Sun, Y.: An improved ant colony algorithm for VRPTW. In IEEE International Conference on Computer Science and, Software Engineering (2008)

    Google Scholar 

  29. Rizzoli, A.E., Montemanni, R., Lucibello, E., Gambardella, L.M.: Ant colony optimization for real-world vehicle routing problems. Swarm Intell 1(2), 135–151 (2007)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  30. Rochat, Y., Taillard, E.: Probabilistic diversification and intensification in local search for vehicle routing. J. Heuristics 1, 147–167 (1995)

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  31. Solomon, M.M.: Algorithms for vehicle routing and scheduling problems with time window constraints. Oper. Res. 35, 254–265 (1987)

    Article  MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  32. Yu, B., Yang, Z.Z., Yao, B.: An improved ant colony optimization for vehicle routing problem. Eur. J. Oper. Res. 196, 171–176 (2009)

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  33. Yuichi, N., Olli, B.: A powerful route minimization heuristic for the vehicle routing problem with time windows. Oper. Res. Lett. 37, 333–338 (2009)

    Article  MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  34. Zhang, X., Tang, L.: A new hybrid ant colony optimization algorithm for the vehicle routing problem. Pattern Recogn. Lett. 30, 848–855 (2009)

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Maharishi Markandeswar University, Mullana, India

    Sandhya Bansal

  2. Ambala College of Engineering and Applied Research, Ambala, India

    Rajeev Goel & C. Mohan

Authors
  1. Sandhya Bansal
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Rajeev Goel
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. C. Mohan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sandhya Bansal .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Engineering and Technology, JK Lakshmipat University, Jaipur, Rajasthan, India

    B. V. Babu

  2. Department of Computer Science, Liverpool Hope University, Liverpool, United Kingdom

    Atulya Nagar

  3. Department of Mathematics, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, Roorkee, Uttarakhand, India

    Kusum Deep

  4. Department of Paper Technology, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, Roorkee, India

    Millie Pant

  5. Department of Applied Mathematics, South Asian University, New Delhi, India

    Jagdish Chand Bansal

  6. Institute of Engineering and Technology, JK Lakshmipat University, Jaipur, Rajasthan, India

    Kanad Ray

  7. Institute of Engineering and Technology, JK Lakshmipat University, Jaipur, Rajasthan, India

    Umesh Gupta

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2014 Springer India

About this paper

Cite this paper

Bansal, S., Goel, R., Mohan, C. (2014). Use of Ant Colony System in Solving Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Window Constraints. In: Babu, B., et al. Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Soft Computing for Problem Solving (SocProS 2012), December 28-30, 2012. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, vol 236. Springer, New Delhi. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-81-322-1602-5_5

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-81-322-1602-5_5

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, New Delhi

  • Print ISBN: 978-81-322-1601-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-81-322-1602-5

  • eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation