A modified adaptive large neighbourhood search for a vehicle routing problem with flexible time windows

Abstract

Vehicle routing problems are widely available in real world application. In this paper, we tackle the resolution of a specific variant of the problem called in the literature vehicle routing problem with flexible time windows (VRPFlexTW), when the solution has to obey several other constraints, such as the consideration of travel, service, and waiting time together with time-window restrictions. There are proposed two modified versions of the Multi-objective Adaptive Large Neighbourhood Search (MOALNS). The MOALNS approach and its different components are described. Also it is listed a computational comparison between the MOALNS versions and the Ant colony optimiser (ACO) on a few instances of the VRPFlexTW.