Improving the ant colony optimization algorithm for the multi-depot vehicle routing problem and its application

Abstract

This paper addresses our solution to the Multi-Depot Vehicle Routing Problem (MDVRP) based on the Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) algorithm. The first part introduces the basic concepts and principles of the algorithm along with its key parameters. The primary part of the article deals with the improvement of the original algorithm. The improvement consists in the distribution of algorithm’s key processes, which can be executed simultaneously, to the individual cores of a multi-core processor. This part also includes several experiments (based on the Cordeau’s test instances) we conducted to verify the value of improvement. The last part of the article presents the real application of the problem and our solution. Finally, the paper summarizes some perspectives of our future work.