A clustering-based multiple ant colony system for the waste collection vehicle routing problems

The waste collection vehicle routing problems with time windows and intermediate facilities (WCVRPTW-IF) is actually belong to a well-known generalization of VRP, the Multi-Depot Vehicle Routing Problem with Inter-Depot Routes (MDVRPI), which is a combinatorial optimization problem and holds a central place in reverse logistics management. In order to improve the route compactness, which is very important in practical application, we presents a clustering-based multiple ant colony system approach called CMACS algorithm to solve CVRPTW-IF. Our CMACS possesses a new strategy to construct solutions, called clustering-based strategy, and mutation operation. Tests are conducted on two standard instances. The results show that CMACS algorithm exhibits a robust behavior and the clustering-based strategy is effective.