A HYBRID FIREWORKS ALGORITHM FOR THE MULTI-TRIP VEHICLE ROUTING PROBLEM

This paper investigates the muti-trip vehicle routing problem (MTVRP) with considerations of vehicle capacity and time constraints. The problem aims to determine a set of trips and assign each trip to a vehicle in a proper way. In this work, firstly, a mixed integer linear programming (MILP) model is formulated to optimize the total travelling time. Then, a hybrid fireworks algorithm (HFWA) is developed for solution generation since it has been proven to be NP-hard. In the algorithm design, a new coding scheme is proposed to accommodate the problem characteristic. Meanwhile, the opposition-based learning technique and the evolution mechanism of artificial bee colony (ABC) algorithm are embedded into FWA for balancing its exploration and exploitation abilities. Computational results indicate that HFWA is effective and efficient in solving MTVRP when compared to other algorithms.