Title: Vehicle routing problem with time windows and fuzzy demands: an approach based on the possibility theory

Authors: Gilles Goncalves, Tiente Hsu, Jian Xu

Addresses: Univ Lille Nord de France, F-59000 Lille, France; UArtois, LGI2A, F-62400, Bethune, France. ' Univ Lille Nord de France, F-59000 Lille, France; UArtois, LGI2A, F-62400, Bethune, France. ' Univ Lille Nord de France, F-59000 Lille, France; UArtois, LGI2A, F-62400, Bethune, France

Abstract: In this paper, the vehicle routing problem with time windows and fuzzy demands (VRPTWFD) is considered and a fuzzy recourse model based on the possibility theory is proposed. A stochastic simulation and a genetic algorithm (GA) are integrated to design a hybrid intelligent algorithm to solve the fuzzy version of a stochastic recourse model. Moreover, an adaptation of the Solomon|s benchmark is proposed in order to assess the quality of the proposed approach.

Keywords: vehicle routing problem; VRP; fuzzy sets; simulation; possibility theory; genetic algorithms; GAs; optimisation; fuzzy logic.

DOI: 10.1504/IJAOM.2009.031247

International Journal of Advanced Operations Management, 2009 Vol.1 No.4, pp.312 - 330

Published online: 27 Jan 2010 *

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