An iterative deep reinforcement learning approach to solve vehicle routing problems

Vehicle routing problems have been studied for more than 50 years, and their in- terest has never been higher. It is partly due to their significant economic impact. Decreasing the traveling time, certainly for big organizations, can save costs in the range of millions of dollars and increase their service quality. Moreover, the wide variety of...

Machine and deep learning models for vehicle routing problems: a literature review

Vehicle routing problems (VRPs), a generalization of the traveling salesman problem, are extensively studied combinatorial optimization problems for their practical application. Many solution methods, e.g., exact and heuristic algorithms, have been proposed in the last few decades but require relatively much computation time due to the NP-hard...

A greedy approach to the minimisation of deviations of the dynamic vehicle routing problem with electric taxiing systems: Master of Science Thesis

In order to reduce aircraft emissions during on-ground operations, electric taxiing systems (ETS) have been intensively researched to take over or assist in part of the taxiing phase of a flight. One of these ETS is the TaxiBot, deployed by Smart Airport Systems (SAS). While a number of papers have been researching this vehicle routing problem ...

A Scheduling Model for Aerial Ride-Sharing Operations: with Limited Infrastructure Capacity

Following the advent of drones for surveillance and cargo delivery purposes, advancements in recent years have also been made towards the development of larger drones for passenger transport. The concept of Urban Air Mobility (UAM) prospects to offer ride-sharing services within and between cities. While trip scheduling and vehicle routing...

Introduction of drones in the last-mile logistic process of medical product delivery: A feasibility assessment applied to the case study of Benu 't Slag

The term last-mile delivery refers to the final leg of a business-to-customer service, in which a product is shipped from a depot to a final destination point by means of land transportation, such as vans and small trucks. Although they provide a common and easy way to consign products, companies are striving for new transport technologies to...

Human Control Performance in Solving Multi-UAV Dynamic Vehicle Routing Problems Using an Ecological Interface

Real-time optimization of Vehicle Routing Problems during mission operations raises concerns regarding reliability of obtaining a solution and solution time. Improvements in control performance by having a human-in-the-loop might be possible by leveraging human visual pattern recognition qualities. By developing an ecological interface,...