Mathematical programming techniques for the solution of hard combinatorial optimization problems arising in transportation

本研究计画针对几类具有同步限制的车辆路径问题进行研究，提出模型化方法及有效的精确与启发式演算法。值得注意的是，我们认为车辆路径问题的转让和多级车辆路径问题。这些类别的车辆路径问题有一个共同的特点：无论是因为在转移点或合并点的同步，基本的时间问题起着至关重要的作用，在确定给定的解决方案的效率。实际上，如果定时问题没有被适当地处理，则可能以在行进时间方面可能更便宜的解决方案结束，但是在总行驶时间（其包括由于不适当的同步而导致的死区时间）方面昂贵得多。

This research plan is intended to study several classes of vehicle routing problems with synchronization constraints, to propose modeling approaches and efficient exact and heuristic algorithms. Notably, we consider vehicle routing problems with transfers and multiple-echelon vehicle routing problems. These classes of vehicle routing problems share a common characteristic: either because of synchronization at transfer points or consolidation points, the underlying timing issue plays a crucial role in determining the efficiency of a given solution. Indeed, if the timing issue is not properly handled, one may end with a possibly cheaper solution in terms of traveling time, but much more expensive in terms of total ride time (which includes the dead times due to improper synchronization).