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An improved ant colony optimization based algorithm for the capacitated arc routing problem

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  • Santos, Luís
  • Coutinho-Rodrigues, João
  • Current, John R.

Abstract

The capacitated arc routing problem is a well-studied problem in the Transportation/Logistics/OR literature. The problem consists of identifying the minimum cost routes required to service (e.g., pickup or deliver) demand located along the edges of a network. Unfortunately, the problem belongs to the set of NP-Hard problems; consequently, numerous heuristic and metaheuristic solution approaches have been developed to solve it. In this article, an ant colony optimization based metaheuristic is presented. Modifications are introduced for various components of the ant colony metaheuristics; specifically for those associated with the "initial population", the "ant decision rule" and the "local search procedure". The new metaheuristic was tested on seven standard test networks for the capacitated arc routing problem. The results demonstrate that the proposed approach performs extremely well vis-à-vis the state-of-the-art metaheuristics for the problem.

Suggested Citation

  • Santos, Luís & Coutinho-Rodrigues, João & Current, John R., 2010. "An improved ant colony optimization based algorithm for the capacitated arc routing problem," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 44(2), pages 246-266, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:transb:v:44:y:2010:i:2:p:246-266
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    15. Meisel, Frank & Thiele, Nicole, 2014. "Where to dispose of urban green waste? Transportation planning for the maintenance of public green spaces," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 147-162.
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    17. Claudia Bode & Stefan Irnich, 2012. "In-Depth Analysis of Pricing Problem Relaxations for the Capacitated Arc-Routing Problem," Working Papers 1212, Gutenberg School of Management and Economics, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz.
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