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The hierarchical traveling salesman problem

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Abstract

The distribution of relief aid is a complex problem where the operations have to be managed efficiently due to limited resources. We present a routing problem for relief operations whose primary goal is to satisfy demand for relief supplies at many locations taking into account the urgency of each demand. We have a single vehicle of unlimited capacity. Each node (location) has a demand and a priority. The priority indicates the urgency of the demand. Typically, nodes with the highest priorities need to be visited before lower priority nodes. We describe a new and interesting model for humanitarian relief routing that we call the hierarchical traveling salesman problem (HTSP). We compare the HTSP and the classical TSP in terms of worst-case behavior. We obtain a simple, but elegant result that exhibits the fundamental tradeoff between efficiency (distance) and priority and we provide several related observations and theorems.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Oracle Analytical Foundation, Oracle Inc., 10 Van De Graaff Dr, Burlington, MA, USA

    Kiran Panchamgam

  2. Mercury Systems Inc., New York, NY, USA

    Yupei Xiong

  3. Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA

    Bruce Golden

  4. Department of Mathematics, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA

    Benjamin Dussault

  5. Kogod School of Business, American University, Washington, DC, USA

    Edward Wasil

Authors
  1. Kiran Panchamgam
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  2. Yupei Xiong
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  3. Bruce Golden
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  4. Benjamin Dussault
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  5. Edward Wasil
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Correspondence to Bruce Golden.

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Panchamgam, K., Xiong, Y., Golden, B. et al. The hierarchical traveling salesman problem. Optim Lett 7, 1517–1524 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11590-012-0553-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11590-012-0553-x

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