Vehicle routing problem and driver behaviour: a review and framework for analysis

Vehicle routing problems (VRPs) whose typical objective is to minimise total travel costs over a tour have evolved over the years with objectives ranging from minimising travel times and distances to minimising pollution and fuel consumption. However, driver behaviour continues to be neglected while planning for vehicle routes. Factors such as traffic congestion levels, monotonous drives and fatigue have an impact on the behaviour of drivers, which in turn might affect their speed-choice and route-choice behaviours. The behaviour of drivers and their subsequent decision-making owing to these factors impact the revenue of transport companies and could lead to huge losses in extreme cases. There have been studies on the behaviour of drivers in isolation, without inclusion of the objectives and constraints of the traditional routing problem. This paper presents a review of existing models of VRP, planner behaviour models in the VRP context and driver behaviour models and provides a motivation to integrate these models in a stochastic traffic environment to produce practical, economic and driver-friendly logistics solutions. The paper provides valuable insights on the relevance of behavioural issues in logistics and highlights the modelling implications of incorporating planner and driver behaviour in the framework of routing problems.     

地理路由算法在Duty-Cycle网络中的研究

文章提出了Duty-Cycle网络中的地理路由算法MMGR（多度量地理路由）。这个算法所考虑的度量因素不仅包括传统地理路由中提到的地理距离,也包括候选节点睡眠延迟的Duty-Cycle。经仿真表明,在Duty-Cycle网络中,这种新的算法在端到端的延迟方面比传统的GR（地理路由）算法有更好的效果。     

Can agents measure up? A comparative study of an agent-based and on-line optimization approach for a drayage problem with uncertainty

Experiments studying the behavior of agent-based methods over varying levels of uncertainty in comparison to traditional optimization methods are generally absent from the literature. In this paper we apply two structurally distinct solution approaches, an on-line optimization and an agent-based approach, to a drayage problem with time windows under two types of uncertainty. Both solution approaches are able to respond to dynamic events. The on-line optimization approach utilizes a mixed integer program to obtain a feasible route at 30-s intervals. The second solution approach deploys agents that engage in auctions to satisfy their own objectives based on the information they perceive and maintain locally. Our results reveal that the agent-based system can outperform the on-line optimization when service time duration is highly uncertain. The on-line optimization approach, on the other hand, performs competitively with the agent-based system under conditions of job-arrival uncertainty. When both moderate service time and job-arrival uncertainties are combined, the agent system outperforms the on-line optimization; however, in the case of extremely high combined uncertainty, the on-line optimization outperforms the agent-based approach.     

基于MFC的机车交路图辅助设计系统研究

为适应机务发展新环境,提高机车交路绘图效率,采用Visual Studio 2010开发工具研究并设计支持Win7环境的机车交路图辅助设计系统(CAD),该系统基于Microsoft Foundation Classes(MFC)类库运用面向对象的C++语言编程实现,兼容性好,操作简单,所绘矢量图缩放不失真,满足铁道机务绘图需求。     

基于流量矩阵估计的路由推断算法

路由信息对网络而言非常重要。现有的路由推断技术很难适用于任意网络。本文提出了一种路由推断算法,在已知网络的拓扑结构和链路流量的情况下,先通过期望最大化算法对一个包含了多种路由可能性的流量矩阵进行估计,然后根据对应的可能需求的估计值的差异来推断实际路由。仿真结果证明了方法的有效性。     

半开放式的多配送中心纯电动车辆路径优化问题

电子商务促使越来越多的物流企业采用多配送中心模式优化车辆的配送路径,纯电动汽车逐渐替代了传统的燃油配送车辆,以改善生态环境. 结合多配送中心联合服务模式的特点和纯电动物流车辆的行驶特征,构建带时间窗的半开放式多配送中心纯电动车辆路径优化模型,设计蚁群算法对其求解. 算例对比分析结果表明：半开放式的多配送中心联合服务,能合理利用相关物流资源,改善车辆路径,降低物流费用,但需要寻找合适数量和位置的配送中心进行联合,才能达到节约成本的最佳效果;相比单配送中心,多配送中心联合服务提供了更多潜在的较低价格的充电点,在配送中心补充电量可在一定程度上节约物流成本.     

A model and optimization-based heuristic for the operational aircraft maintenance routing problem

This paper investigates the Operational Aircraft Maintenance Routing Problem (OAMRP). Given a set of flights for a specific homogeneous fleet type, this short-term planning problem requires building feasible aircraft routes that cover each flight exactly once and that satisfy maintenance requirements. Basically, these requirements enforce an aircraft to undergo a planned maintenance at a specified station before accumulating a maximum number of flying hours. This stage is significant to airline companies as it directly impacts the fleet availability, safety, and profitability. The contribution of this paper is twofold. First, we elucidate the complexity status of the OAMRP and we propose an exact mixed-integer programming model that includes a polynomial number of variables and constraints. Furthermore, we propose a graph reduction procedure and valid inequalities that aim at improving the model solvability. Second, we propose a very large-scale neighborhood search algorithm along with a procedure for computing tight lower bounds. We present the results of extensive computational experiments that were carried out on real-world flight networks and attest to the efficacy of the proposed exact and heuristic approaches. In particular, we provide evidence that the exact model delivers optimal solutions for instances with up to 354 flights and 8 aircraft, and that the heuristic approach consistently delivers high-quality solutions while requiring short CPU times.     

A reinforcement learning framework for the adaptive routing problem in stochastic time-dependent network

Most previous work in addressing the adaptive routing problem in stochastic and time-dependent (STD) network has been focusing on developing parametric models to reflect the network dynamics and designing efficient algorithms to solve these models. However, strong assumptions need to be made in the models and some algorithms also suffer from the curse of dimensionality. In this paper, we examine the application of Reinforcement Learning as a non-parametric model-free method to solve the problem. Both the online Q learning method for discrete state space and the offline fitted Q iteration algorithm for continuous state space are discussed. With a small case study on a mid-sized network, we demonstrate the significant advantages of using Reinforcement Learning to solve for the optimal routing policy over traditional stochastic dynamic programming method. And the fitted Q iteration algorithm combined with tree-based function approximation is shown to outperform other methods especially during peak demand periods.     

论气象导航在航海上的地位

在介绍气导公司的材料中,已经知道了气导公司能为航运业带来很好的经济效益与安全保障。这里,以亲自经历的气导实例为切入点,分析美国气象导航公司(wni)在船舶气象导航上难以避免的局限性。为船长、船东和租船人如何正确选择使用气导公司及其提供的资料提供一点参考意见,以期减少船东、租船人之间使用气导的纠纷。     

带时间窗的动态车辆路径问题的局部搜索算法

为有效求解带时间窗的动态车辆路径问题,建立了该问题的数学模型,通过计划周期分片,将动态问题转换为一系列的静态子问题,采用插入法构造初始解,并将重定位法、节点交换法和2-opt*法3种线路间局部搜索方法,以及2-opt法和Or-opt法2种线路内局部搜索方法的不同组合应用于初始解的改进,分析了客户出现时间、地理位置分布与不同客户时间窗范围对线路选择的影响,比较了标准算例的求解结果。结果表明:在线路间进行局部搜索时,重定位法的效果最好,2-opt*法次之,节点交换法的最差;在线路内进行局部搜索时,2-opt法优于Or-opt法;当客户请求出现时间越早,客户比较集中,客户时间窗较宽的情况下,使用的车辆数量较少,整个线路的行驶距离较短,客户延迟时间也较短。