M-NSGA-II: A memetic algorithm for vehicle routing problem with route balancing

Abstract

The vehicle routing problem with route balancing (VRPRB) is a variant of classical VRPs. It is a bi-objective optimization problem which considers the total length of routes and the balance issue among different routes. In this paper, the balance objective we introduce is the minimization of the maximal route length, which can effectively avoid the occurrence of distorted solutions. We develop an NSGA-II based memetic algorithm (M-NSGA-II) for the VRPRB. The M-NSGA-II algorithm combines the NSGA-II algorithm with a local search procedure which consists of four local search operators. To evaluate our algorithm, we test it on the standard benchmarks and compare our results with the referenced approach. Moreover, we analyze the effect of different local search operators on M-NSGA-II algorithm. Computational results indicate that our M-NSGA-II algorithm is able to produce better solutions.