Abstract
We describe a heuristic solution method for the Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Windows. The method uses four improvement operators in a steepest descent search strategy. The Guided Local Search meta-heuristic is used to avoid local minima. The resulting algorithm is tested on Solomon’s capacitated vehicle routing problems with time windows. We compare our results to the best heuristic approaches reported for the VRPTW. The new method performs significantly better than previous methods on classes where vehicle routes tend to be longer. The method is slightly worse on classes with shorter routes. We report 12 new best solutions for Solomon’s problems.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Y. Caseau and F. Laburthe. Solving small TSPs with constraints. In Proceedings the 14th International Conference on Logic Programming, 1997.
M. Desrochers, J. Desrosiers, and M. Solomon. A new optimization algorithm for the vehicle routing problem with time windows. Operations Research, 40(2):342–354, 1992.
M. L. Fisher. Optimal solution of vehicle routing problems using minimum K-trees. Operations Research, 42(4):626–642, 1994.
M. L. Fisher and K. O. Jornsten. Vehicle routing with time windows: Two optimization algorithms. Operations Research, 45(3):488–492, 1997.
M. Gendreau, A. Hertz, and G. Laporte. A tabu search heuristic for the vehicle routing problem. Management Sci., 40(10): 1276–1290, 1994.
N. Kohl, J. Desrosiers, O. B. G. Madsen, M. M. Solomon, and F. Soumis, k-path cuts for the vehicle routing problem with time windows. Technical Report G-97-19, Les Cahiers du GERAD, 1997.
G. Laporte and I. H. Osman. Routing problems: A bibliography. Ann. Oper. Res., 61:227–262, 1995.
S. Lin. Computer solutions of the traveling salesman problem. Bell Syst. Tech. J., 44:2245–2269, 1965.
I. H. Osman. Metastrategy simulated annealing and tabu search algorithms for the vehicle routing problem. Ann. Oper. Res., 41:421–451, 1993.
G. Pesant, M. Gendreau, J.-Y. Potvin, and J.-M. Rousseau. An exact constraint logic programming algorithm for the traveling salesman problem with time windows, to appear in Transportation Science, 1998.
J.-Y. Potvin and S. Bengio. A genetic approach to the vehicle routing problem with time windows. Technical Report CRT-953, Centre de Recherche sur les Transports, University of Montreal, 1994.
J.-Y. Potvin, T. Kervahut, B.-L. Garcia, and J.-M. Rousseau. A tabu search heuristic for the vehicle routing problem with time windows. Technical Report CRT-855, Centre de Recherche sur les Transports, University of Montreal, 1993.
P. Prosser and P. Shaw. Study of greedy search with multiple improvement heuristics for vehicle routing problems. Technical Report RR/96/201, Department of Computer Science, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, January 1997.
Y. Rochat and E. D. Taillard. Probabilistic diversification and intensification in local search for vehicle routing. Journal of Heuristics, 1(1): 147–167, 1995.
M. W. P. Savelsbergh. Computer aided routing. Centrum voor Wiskunde en Informatica, Amsterdam, 1988.
M. M. Solomon. Algorithms for the vehicle routing and scheduling problem with time window constraints. Oper. Res., 35:254–265, 1987.
E. Taillard, P. Badeau, M. Gendreau, F. Guertain, and J.-Y. Potvin. A new neighbourhood structure for the vehicle routing problem with time windows. Technical Report CRT-95-66, Centre de Recherche sur les Transports, University of Montreal, 1995.
S. R. Thangiah, I. H. Osman, and T. Sun. Hybrid genetic algorithm, simulated annealing, and tabu search methods for vehicle routing problems with time windows. Working paper UKC/OR94/4, Institute of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Kent, Canterbury, 1994.
S. R. Thangiah, R. Vinayagamoorthy, and T. Sun. Vehicle routing with time deadlines using genetic and local algorithms. In 5th International Conference on Genetic Algorithms, 1993.
E. Tsang and C. Voudouris. Fast local search and guided local search and their application to British Telecom’s workforce scheduling problem. Technical Report CSM-246, Department of Computer Science, University of Essex, August 1995.
C. Voudouris. Guided Local Search for Combinatorial Problems. PhD thesis, University of Essex, April 1997.
C. Voudouris and E. Tsang. Function optimization using guided local search. Technical Report CSM-249, Department of Computer Science, University of Essex, September 1995.
C. Voudouris and E. Tsang. Guided local search. Technical Report CSM-247, Department of Computer Science, University of Essex, August 1995.
C. Voudouris and E. Tsang. Partial constraint satisfaction problems and guided local search. Technical Report CSM-250, Department of Computer Science, University of Essex, September 1995.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1999 Springer Science+Business Media New York
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Kilby, P., Prosser, P., Shaw, P. (1999). Guided Local Search for the Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Windows. In: Voß, S., Martello, S., Osman, I.H., Roucairol, C. (eds) Meta-Heuristics. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-5775-3_32
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-5775-3_32
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-1-4613-7646-0
Online ISBN: 978-1-4615-5775-3
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive