An Artificial Bee Colony Algorithm for Static and Dynamic Capacitated Arc Routing Problems

Abstract

The Capacitated Arc Routing Problem (CARP) is a combinatorial optimization problem, which requires the identification of such route plans on a given graph to a number of vehicles that generates the least total cost. The Dynamic CARP (DCARP) is a variation of the CARP that considers dynamic changes in the problem. The Artificial Bee Colony (ABC) algorithm is an evolutionary optimization algorithm that was proven to be able to provide better performance than many other evolutionary algorithms, but it was not used for the CARP before. For this reason, in this study, an ABC algorithm for the CARP (CARP-ABC) was developed along with a new move operator for the CARP, the sub-route plan operator. The CARP-ABC algorithm was tested both as a CARP and a DCARP solver, then its performance was compared with other existing algorithms. The results showed that it excels in finding a relatively good quality solution in a short amount of time, which makes it a competitive solution. The efficiency of the sub-route plan operator was also tested and the results showed that it is more likely to find better solutions than other operators.