The dynamic shortest path problem with time-dependent stochastic disruptions

Abstract

The dynamic shortest path problem with time-dependent stochastic disruptions consists of finding a route with a minimum expected travel time from an origin to a destination using both historical and real-time information. The problem is formulated as a discrete time finite horizon Markov decision process and it is solved by a hybrid Approximate Dynamic Programming (ADP) algorithm with a clustering approach using a deterministic lookahead policy and value function approximation. The algorithm is tested on a number of network configurations which represent different network sizes and disruption levels. Computational results reveal that the proposed hybrid ADP algorithm provides high quality solutions with a reduced computational effort.