Meta Heuristic Algorithm for Vehicle Routing Problem with Uncertainty in Customer Demand

Abstract

The Vehicle Routing Problem is an optimization problem with number of applications in the transportation field. In this paper, Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP) with uncertainty in customer demand is considered. Often in real world situation, the information on demand on each customer is not accurate enough. Here, in this article we are assuming that the customer demands in each time period are uncertain and are considered as fuzzy variables. This kind of problem is known as an NP-hard problem. The main purpose of this article is to give conceptual and practical idea on how fuzzy logic with meta heuristic algorithm can be implemented to improve the optimization of vehicle routing problem with uncertainty in customer demand. To solve this problem, a hybrid Meta heuristic algorithm (HMHA) including clustering is proposed, with the objective of determining an optimal route to minimize the total cost.