Utilization of the Capacitated Vehicle Routing Problem with the Capacity Limitation of Nodes in Water Transportation

Abstract

The paper discusses the option of using the capacitated vehicle routing problem with the capacity limitation of nodes in water transportation. The problem is used to design circular routes for vehicles of different carriers, each of which services the selected nodes of the transportation network. The goal is to design circular routes where the capacity of vehicles is not exceeded and the value of the objective function is minimal. The limited capacity of nodes is given by the limited number of vehicles that can be operated at a particular node at any given time. The problem allows to design circulation so that the waiting time of vehicles to release the capacity of the node is minimized. This makes it possible to achieve an additional reduction in the total traffic time. The possibility of using the role of the CVRPCLN in water transportation is demonstrated in a case study for the design of circular routes for vessels serving ports. The design of routes is performed using the described problem and using the capacitated vehicle routing problem, which does not take into account the limited capacity of the nodes. To solve both problems, the author uses an evolutionary algorithm, which is part of the optimization module Solver. A comparison of the results indicates that the use of the investigated task can lead to a significant reduction in waiting times in ports for selected tasks in the field of water transportation. This also leads to a significant reduction in the total traffic time.