SRNN-RSA: a new method to solving time-dependent shortest path problems based on structural recurrent neural network and ripple spreading algorithm

Influenced by external factors, the speed of vehicles in the traffic network is changing all the time, which makes the traditional static shortest route unable to meet the real logistics distribution needs. Considering that the existing research on time-dependent shortest path problems (TDSPP) do not include the topological information of the traffic network, it is unable to reflect the spatial and temporal dynamic characteristics of the traffic network during the vehicle travelling process and is unable to update to the changes of the vehicle speed in real time, and poor scalability. Therefore, we used the structural RNN (SRNN) model containing topological information of the road network is used to predict time-varying speeds in the traffic road network. We proposed an SRNN-RSA framework for solving the TDSPP problem, which achieves a synergistic evolution between the real-time vehicle speed change process and the RSA solving process, and the scalability of the proposed SRNN-RSA is demonstrated and validated using different real data. Compared with other algorithms, the results show that SRNN-RSA has the lowest error with the actual situation, which can balance the solution accuracy and calculation speed and is more consistent with the real traffic road network, with better stability and expandability.