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A memetic algorithm for the vehicle routing problem with time windows

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 August 2008

Nacima Labadi ,
Christian Prins  and
Mohamed Reghioui
Nacima Labadi
Affiliation:
Inst. Charles Delaunay, Univ. Technologie Troyes, FRE CNRS 2848, BP 2060, 10010 Troyes Cedex, France; nacima.labadi@utt.fr, christian.prins@utt.fr, mohamed.reghioui_hamzaoui@utt.fr
Christian Prins
Affiliation:
Inst. Charles Delaunay, Univ. Technologie Troyes, FRE CNRS 2848, BP 2060, 10010 Troyes Cedex, France; nacima.labadi@utt.fr, christian.prins@utt.fr, mohamed.reghioui_hamzaoui@utt.fr
Mohamed Reghioui
Affiliation:
Inst. Charles Delaunay, Univ. Technologie Troyes, FRE CNRS 2848, BP 2060, 10010 Troyes Cedex, France; nacima.labadi@utt.fr, christian.prins@utt.fr, mohamed.reghioui_hamzaoui@utt.fr
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Abstract

This article deals with the vehicle routing problem with timewindows (VRPTW). This problem consists in determining a least-costset of trips to serve customers during specific time windows. Theproposed solution method is a memetic algorithm (MA), a geneticalgorithm hybridised with a local search. Contrary to most paperson the VRPTW, which minimize first the number of vehicles, ourmethod is also able to minimize the total distance travelled. Theresults on 56 classical instances are compared to those of thebest metaheuristics. The efficiency of the MA is similar for theclassical criterion, but it becomes the best algorithm availablefor the total distance, being much faster and improving 20best-known solutions.

Keywords

memetic algorithmvehicle routing problemtime window.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
RAIRO - Operations Research , Volume 42 , Issue 3 , July 2008 , pp. 415 - 431
Copyright
© EDP Sciences, ROADEF, SMAI, 2008

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