Sustainable vehicle routing problem on real-time roads: the restrictive inheritance-based heuristic algorithm

Abstract

• This article aims to present an efficient vehicle routing algorithm for a real-time routing solution. • The recursive routing process reflects the vehicle's energy consumption mechanism and the effect of vehicle speeds on CO2 emissions. • The restrictive inheritance strategy and loop termination condition prevent high memory usage, redundancy, and infinite negative loop, leading to high computational efficiency and a Pareto-optimal solution. • The suggested method contributes to reducing energy consumption and CO2 emission and shows robustness in reflecting ever-changing road conditions. Road transportation is a substantial contributor to urban greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This article focuses on the energy-efficient vehicle routing problem, given the relationship between a vehicle's energy consumption and CO2 emission. Extensive studies have established the energy dissipation model considering road gradients, traffic flow, and road congestion, and the route searching process entails algorithm application. However, despite the efforts to overcome the trade-off between computational efficiency and solution quality, the probabilistic and randomized-based routing algorithms would be trapped into the local optima or compromise computational efficiency. Hence, this article aims to propose an efficient vehicle routing algorithm in the sustainable transportation domain. The method derives a Pareto-optimal solution in an acceptable execution time; furthermore, the embedded cost function includes energy dissipation and recuperation mechanism in hilly regions. For a real-world application, this article refers to road gradients and a real-time traffic API. The findings showed the amelioration of CO2 emissions and computational loads, thus corroborating the pragmatic aspect. The eco-oriented route decision connotes a practical foundation of sustainability and contributes to future studies in this promising field.