Planning International Transport Using the Heuristic Algorithm

Abstract

The article refers to the problem of planning international transport. The aim of this paper is to develop the algorithm which will be used to planning international transport. Planning international transport problems are the complex decision problems which refer to the vehicle routing problems and the problems of designating the minimal path in the graph. The approach to planning international transport presented in this paper takes into account the delay times in the intermediate points, e.g. cities and average waiting time at the border crossings. In order to determine the international transport routes the mathematical model was developed, i.e. decision variables, constraints and the criterion function. Decision variables take the binary form and determine the connections between the objects in the transportation network which are realized by the vehicles. Constraints take into account the weight limits on the routes and the time realization of the transportation task. The criterion function determines the minimal transportation route in the context the time of its realization. In order to designate the routes in international transport the heuristic algorithm, i.e. ant algorithm was developed. The steps of building this algorithm was presented. This algorithm was verified in the C# programming language. The results generating by the presented algorithm were compared with the results generating by the random algorithm.