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A hybrid search method for the vehicle routing problem with time windows

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Abstract

Vehicle Routing Problems have been extensively analyzed to reduce transportation costs. More particularly, the Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Windows (VRPTW) imposes the period of time of customer availability as a constraint, a common characteristic in real world situations. Using minimization of the total distance as the main objective to be fulfilled, this work implements an efficient algorithm which associates non-monotonic Simulated Annealing to Hill-Climbing and Random Restart. The algorithm is compared to the best results published in the literature for the 56 Solomon instances and it is shown how statistical methods can be used to boost the performance of the method.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Exact Sciences, Federal University of Alfenas, Rua Gabriel Monteiro da Silva, 714, Centro, 37130-000, Alfenas, MG, Brazil

    Humberto César Brandão de Oliveira

  2. Center for Informatics, Federal University of Pernambuco, Av. Prof. Luiz Freire S/N, Cidade Universitária, 50732-970, Recife, PE, Brazil

    Germano Crispim Vasconcelos

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  1. Humberto César Brandão de Oliveira
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  2. Germano Crispim Vasconcelos
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Correspondence to Germano Crispim Vasconcelos.

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Brandão de Oliveira, H.C., Vasconcelos, G.C. A hybrid search method for the vehicle routing problem with time windows. Ann Oper Res 180, 125–144 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10479-008-0487-y

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