Journal of Systems Engineering and Electronics ›› 2022, Vol. 33 ›› Issue (4): 997-1009.doi: 10.23919/JSEE.2022.000096

• SYSTEMS ENGINEERING • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Solving open vehicle problem with time window by hybrid column generation algorithm

Naikang YU1,2(), Bin QIAN2,3,*(), Rong HU2,3(), Yuwang CHEN4(), Ling WANG5()   

  1. 1 School of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming 650500, China
    2 School of Information Engineering and Automation, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming 650500, China
    3 Yunnan Key Laboratory of Artificial Intelligence, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming 650500, China
    4 Alliance Manchester Business School, University of Manchester, Manchester M139SS, U.K.
    5 Department of Automation, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
  • Received:2020-11-30 Accepted:2022-03-29 Online:2022-08-30 Published:2022-08-30
  • Contact: Bin QIAN E-mail:nk_yu2020@foxmail.com;bin.qian@vip.163.com;ronghu@vip.163.com;Yu-wang.chen@mbs.ac.uk;wangling@tsinghua.edu.cn
  • About author:|YU Naikang was born in 1993. He received his B.S. degree in automation from Qufu Normal University, China, in 2016. He is currently pursuing his Ph.D. degree at Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming, China. His current research interests include operation research and mathematical programming and scheduling. E-mail: nk_yu2020@foxmail.com||QIAN Bin was born in 1976. He received his B.S. degree in automation from Donghua University, Shanghai, China, in 1998, M.S. degree in control theory and its applications from Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming, China, in 2004, and Ph.D. degree in control science and engineering from Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, in 2009. He is currently a professor at Kunming University of Science and Technology, China. He has published over 90 referred papers. His current research interests include intelligent optimization and scheduling. E-mail: bin.qian@vip.163.com||HU Rong was born in 1974. She received her B.S. degree in thermal energy and dynamic engineering from Southeast University, Nanjing, China, in 1997, and M.S. degree in control science and engineering from Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, in 2004.She is currently an associate professor at Kuming University of Science and Technology, China. She has published over 50 referred papers. Her current research interests include intelligent optimization and machine learning.E-mail: ronghu@vip.163.com||CHEN Yuwang was born in 1982. He received his Ph.D. degree in control theory and engineering from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China, in 2008. He is currently a senior lecturer in decision sciences in the Alliance Manchester Business School, University of Manchester, Manchester, U.K.. Prior to his current appointment, he was a postdoctoral research associate and then appointed as a lecturer in 2011 at the Decision and Cognitive Sciences (DCS) Research Centre at the University of Manchester, U.K.. He has published over 110 referred papers. His current research interests include decision and risk analysis under uncertainties, modeling and optimization of complex systems, and operational research and data analytics. E-mail: Yu-wang.chen@mbs.ac.uk||WANG Ling was born in 1972. He received his B.S. degree in automation and Ph.D. degree in control science and engineering from Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, in 1995 and 1999, respectively. Since 1999, he has been with Department of Automation, Tsinghua University, where he became a full professor in 2008. He has authored five academic books and more than 230 refereed papers. His current research interests include intelligent optimization theory, algorithms, and applications.E-mail: wangling@tsinghua.edu.cn
  • Supported by:
    This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (61963022; 51665025; 61873328)

Abstract:

This paper addresses the open vehicle routing problem with time window (OVRPTW), where each vehicle does not need to return to the depot after completing the delivery task. The optimization objective is to minimize the total distance. This problem exists widely in real-life logistics distribution process. We propose a hybrid column generation algorithm (HCGA) for the OVRPTW, embedding both exact algorithm and metaheuristic. In HCGA, a label setting algorithm and an intelligent algorithm are designed to select columns from small and large subproblems, respectively. Moreover, a branch strategy is devised to generate the final feasible solution for the OVRPTW. The computational results show that the proposed algorithm has faster speed and can obtain the approximate optimal solution of the problem with 100 customers in a reasonable time.

Key words: open vehicle routing problem with time window (OVRPTW), hybrid column generation algorithm (HCGA), mixed integer programming, label setting algorithm