Multiple Ant Colony Optimization for a Rich Vehicle Routing Problem: A Case Study

Rich vehicle routing problems try to represent situations that can be found in reality. Starting from a case study, in this paper a rich vehicle routing problem is analyzed. The elements that characterize it are mainly the presence of multiple objectives, constraints concerning multiple time windows, heterogeneous fleet, maximum duration of the subtours, and multiple visits. Two variants of the Ant Colony Optimization metaheuristic are proposed for tackling this problem. The specific framework is called Multiple Ant Colony Optimization. It is finalized to the consideration of multi-objective problems. Two algorithms are tested. The results appear very satisfactory.

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2007
• Where: KES
• Authors: Paola Pellegrini, Daniela Favaretto, Elena Moretti
• Keywords: Ant Colony Optimization, KES 2007, Rich Vehicle, Vehicle Routing Problem