The genetic algorithm method for multiple depot capacitated vehicle routing problem solving

Abstract

Many organizations face the problem of delivering goods from a certain number of warehouses to a number of retail sites using a fleet of vehicles. The multiple depot capacitated vehicle routing problem is mathematical model that closely approximates the problem faced by many of these organizations. Because the problem is NP-hard, requiring excessive time to be solved exactly, we develop a heuristic based on a genetic algorithm that finds high quality solutions in a reasonable amount of computer time. Basic GA procedures adapted to a given problem are presented and six versions of crossover operators are compared. The test results reveal that the method is able to produce results of a kind that are not easily obtained, namely in terms of the amount of information about the solutions and the solution space.