Vehicle routing problems with synchronization constraints

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Christian Bierwirth
• Subject Area: Accounting and Finance
• Term: from 2011 to 2014
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 188623922

The synchronization of vehicles, persons or services, which has to be realized in service networks for health care, waste collection or thelike, is known as a complex planing requirement. This projects aims at classifying, modelling and solving problems with spatial and temporal synchronization requirements within a network of mobile servers on a general basis. The scope of research includes routing problems faced by transport companies, collection services and other service providers that have to be solved while planning the daily operations. We distinguish four basic types of synchronization which capture all possible synchronization requirements between interacting ressources. These types of synchronization are modelled as a linear mixed integer program from which we derive a general synchronization constraint for ressources or vehicles moving and interacting in a network. We also develop approaches for solving the resulting problems exactly and heuristically,. The latter is especially important because huge service networks have to be dealt with in practice.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants