Formulations and solution methods for the pickup and delivery problem with time windows, heterogeneous fleet and multiple products

Abstract

In this project, we address the vehicle routing problem with pickup and delivery, focused on the development of mathematical models and solution methods. We are interested in practical variants motivated by interaction with a real farmers' cooperative in São Paulo State. Characteristics such as heterogeneous fleet, product perishability and split delivery/pickup will be incorporated into classic literature models, as well as to heuristic methods, in order to obtain solutions that are feasible in practice. The methods will be based on metaheuristics that have been used successfully in solving classical variants of the problem. The proposed models and methods will be implemented computationally and validated through computational experiments using instances from the literature and real data collected in practice. Thus, we hope to contribute with the scientific literature, by the proposal of new models and solution methods for rich variants of the vehicle routing problem with pickup and delivery. In addition, the project has the potential for practical contributions, due to the interaction with Industry and the possibility of implementation and analysis of results in collaboration with the cooperative under study. (AU)