Modern VRPs

There are a number of reasons for the large number of studies concerning the vehicle routing problem (VRP). From the practical point of view, the problem is one of the most important problems in the supply chain management and, thus, the finding of the optimal set of routes will help the decision makers to reduce the cost of the supply chain and to increase the profit. 

Also, in the formulation of the problem the managers could simulate the complete network and add any of the constraints concerning the customers, the vehicles, the routes, and, also, the traffic conditions of the network and the energy consumption of the vehicles. 

Thus, someone could solve an exhaustive realistic problem and find a near-optimal set of solutions. From the theoretical point of view, there are a huge number of researchers who deal with the solution of a variant (or more variants) of the vehicle routing problem. These variants of the problem focus on a specific constraint, and the researchers are trying to find an algorithm that gives new best solutions in a specific set of benchmark instances in short computational time with as less as possible parameters in order to give a more general algorithm. 

Our research group has been engaged in the development of algorithms for addressing classical vehicle routing problems, as outlined in detail in the following pages.

• Vehicle Routing Problem with Drones

• Electric Vehicles

• Energy Vehicle Routing Problems

• Humanitarian Logistics