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Simulated annealing metaheuristics for the vehicle routing problem with time windows

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Abstract

This paper develops simulated annealing metaheuristics for the vehicle routing and scheduling problem with time window constraints. Two different neighborhood structures, the λ-interchange mechanism of Osman and thek-node interchange process of Christofides and Beasley, are implemented. The enhancement of the annealing process with a short-term memory function via a tabu list is examined as a basis for improving the metaheuristic approach. Computational results on test problems from the literature as well as large-scale real-world problem are reported. The metaheuristics achieve solutions that compare favorably with previously reported results.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Quantitative Methods, University of Tulsa, 74014, Tulsa, OK, USA

    Wen-Chyuan Chiang & Robert A. Russell

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  1. Wen-Chyuan Chiang
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  2. Robert A. Russell
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Chiang, WC., Russell, R.A. Simulated annealing metaheuristics for the vehicle routing problem with time windows. Ann Oper Res 63, 3–27 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02601637

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