Agricultural producers consider utilizing multiple machines to reduce field completion times for improving effective field capacity. Using a number of smaller machines rather than a single big machine also has benefits such as sustainability via less compaction risk, redundancy in the event of an equipment failure, and more flexibility in machinery management. However, machinery management is complicated due to logistics issues. In this work, the allocation and ordering of field paths among a number of available machines have been transformed into a solvable Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP). A basic heuristic algorithm (a modified form of the Clarke-Wright algorithm) and a meta-heuristic algorithm, Tabu Search, were employed to solve the VRP. The solution considered optimization of field completion time as well as improving the field efficiency. Both techniques were evaluated through computer simulations with 2, 3, 5, or 10 vehicles working simultaneously to complete the same operation. Furthermore, the parameters of the VRP were changed into a dynamic, multi-depot representation to enable the re-route of vehicles while the operation is ongoing. The results proved both the Clarke-Wright and Tabu Search algorithms always generated feasible solutions. The Tabu Search solutions outperformed the solutions provided by the Clarke-Wright algorithm. As the number of the vehicles increased, or the field shape became more complex, the Tabu Search generated better results in terms of reducing the field completion times. With 10 vehicles working together in a real-world field, the benefit provided by the Tabu Search over the Modified Clarke-Wright solution was 32% reduction in completion time. In addition, changes in the parameters of the VRP resulted in a Dynamic, Multi-Depot VRP (DMDVRP) to reset the routes allocated to each vehicle even as the operation was in progress. In all the scenarios tested, the DMDVRP was able to produce new optimized routes, but the impact of these routes varied for each scenario. The ability of this optimization procedure to reduce field work times were verified through real-world experiments using three tractors during a rotary mowing operation. The time to complete the field work was reduced by 17.3% and the total operating time for all tractors was reduced by 11.5%. The task of a single large machine was also simulated as a task for 2 or 3 smaller machines through computer simulations. Results revealed up to 11% reduction in completion time using three smaller machines. This time reduction improved the effective field capacity.

To connect different electrical, network and data devices with the minimum cost and shortest path, is a complex job. In huge buildings, where the devices are placed at different locations on different floors and only some specific routes are available to pass the cables and buses, the shortest path search becomes more complex. The aim of this thesis project is, to develop an application which indentifies the best path to connect all objects or devices by following the specific routes.To address the above issue we adopted three algorithms Greedy Algorithm, Simulated Annealing and Exhaustive search and analyzed their results. The given problem is similar to Travelling Salesman Problem. Exhaustive search is a best algorithm to solve this problem as it checks each and every possibility and give the accurate result but it is an impractical solution because of huge time consumption. If no. of objects increased from 12 it takes hours to search the shortest path. Simulated annealing is emerged with some promising results with lower time cost. As of probabilistic nature, Simulated annealing could be non optimal but it gives a near optimal solution in a reasonable duration. Greedy algorithm is not a good choice for this problem. So, simulated annealing is proved best algorithm for this problem. The project has been implemented in C-language which takes input and store output in an Excel Workbook

In this study, inventory&ndash / routing system of a company operating in Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) industry is analyzed. The company has decided to redesign distribution system by locating regional warehouses between production plants and customers. The warehouses in the system are all allowed to hold stock without any capacity restriction. The customers are replenished by the warehouse to which they have been assigned. Customer stocks are continuously monitored by the warehouse and deliveries are to be scheduled. In this multi&ndash / item, two-echelon inventory&ndash / distribution system, main problem is synchronizing inventory and distribution decisions. An integrated Mixed Integer Programming optimization model for inventory and distribution planning is proposed with the aim of optimally coordinating inventory management and vehicle routing. The model determines the replenishment periods of items and amount of delivery to each customer / and constructs the delivery routes with the objective of cost minimization. The integrated model is coded in GAMS and solved by CPLEX. The integrated inventory-routing model is simulated with retrospective data of the company. Computational results on test problems are provided to show the effectiveness of the model developed in terms of the performance measures defined. Moreover, the feasible solution obtained for a period is compared to the realized inventory levels and distribution schedules. Computational results seem to indicate a substantial advantage of the integrated inventory-routing system over the existing distribution system.

The transportation phase of solid waste management is highly critical as it may constitute approximately 60 to 75 percent of the total cost. Therefore, even a small amount of improvement in the collection operation can result in a significant saving in the overall cost. Despite the fact that there exist a considerable amount of studies on Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP), a vast majority of the existing studies are not integrated with GIS and hence they do not consider the path constraints of real road networks for waste collection such as one-way roads and U-Turns. This study involves the development of computer software that optimizes the waste collection routes for solid waste transportation considering the path constraints and road gradients. In this study, two different routing models are proposed. The aim of the first model is to minimize the total distance travelled whereas that of the second model is to minimize the total fuel consumption that depends on the loading conditions of the truck and the road gradient. A comparison is made between these two approaches. It is expected that the two approaches generate routes having different characteristics. The obtained results are satisfactory. The distance optimization model generates routes that are shorter in length whereas the fuel consumption optimization model generates routes that are slightly higher in length but provides waste collection on steeply inclined roads with lower truck load. The resultant routes are demonstrated on a 3D terrain view.

Nowadays in mobile and wireless networks environment, Mobile IP is the preferred standard in supporting IP mobility among several standards. However, several problems still need to be solved. One of them is the triangle routing problem. Although drafts have been proposed by the IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) for solving this problem, the proposed solution can not be achieved unless the draft of the Mobile IP route optimization method becomes a typical standard of the Mobile IP. In this paper, we present an extended routing agent architecture to solve this problem. The Middle Mobility Agent (MMA) in the proposed architecture can intercept datagrams earlier and determine to tunnel the incoming packet or not than the MH¡¦s original home agent. This architecture can solve the triangle routing problem by reducing packet¡¦s routing length. An analytical model and a simulation environment were set up to evaluate and measure the packet¡¦s routing length and delay time of proposed architecture. The evaluation and simulation results demonstrate that the proposed method can reduce the routing length, delay time and solve the triangle routing problem.

In this thesis the capacitated vehicle routing problem with time windows (VRPTW) is studied, where the objective is to serve a set of geographically dispersed customers with known demands and predefined time windows at the minimum cost. It is hard to find an optimal solution for the VRPTW even if the problem size is small. Therefore, many heuristic methods are developed to obtain near optimal solutions. In this study a local search algorithm is proposed for solving the VRPTW, which consist of route construction and route improvement phases. Computational experiments are conducted with Solomon (1987)&rsquo / s and Homberger and Gehring (1999)&rsquo / s problem sets in order to test the performance of the proposed algorithm. From the computational results encouraging results are obtained in terms of solution quality.

This thesis identifies some problems, the genetic algorithm (GA) is facing in the area of vehicle routing and proposes various methods to address those problems. Those problems arise from the unavailability of suitable chromosomal representation and evaluation schemes of GA for the Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP). The representation and evaluation schemes already in use have problems of high computational cost, illegal chromosomes (chromosomes not representing a legal tour) and wrong fitness assignment (fitness not truly representing chromosome genetic makeup). These problems are addressed by several proposed new schemes, namely the Self Imposed Constraints Evaluation scheme, the Contour and Reverse Contour Evaluation schemes and the Order Skipping Evaluation scheme, which are specifically tailored for various objectives, problems and situations. Apart from this, a methodology, which has previously being used in other meta-heuristics, is incorporated into GA i.e., the independent application of GA on various sub-localities of the problem. We call this GA, a Localized Genetic Algorithm (LGA). LGA is an iterative procedure between optimization and controlled de-optimization. The procedure of controlled de-optimization is also novel. It brings the solution into a new search space while controlling its cost effectively. LGA is introduced with various search techniques, i.e. intensive, extensive and selective, the use of which depends on the problem size and the availability of computational resources. Furthermore, search reduction techniques (Fitness Approximation Methods) are also introduced into the LGA, which has enabled the LGA to be applied to large scale problems. Due to the implementation of those proposals, LGA is the first GA-driven approach to be applied to very large scale CVRP problems of up to 1200 customers, i.e. datasets presented by Feiyue in 2005 and large scale VRPTW problems of up to 1000 customers, datasets presented by Gehring and Homberger in 1999. Lastly, a standard unit for computational comparison, i.e., Bellman's Evaluation Units BEUs, is also introduced to facilitate computational comparisons for future researchers. LGA has shown promising results on CVRP and VRPTW problems. It is flexible and also has the potential to be extended to not only other vehicle routing problems, but also to other ordering problems.

Control of complex systems satisfying rich temporal specification has become an increasingly important research area in fields such as robotics, control, automotive, and manufacturing. Popular specification languages include temporal logics, such as Linear Temporal Logic (LTL) and Computational Tree Logic (CTL), which extend propositional logic to capture the temporal sequencing of system properties. The focus of this dissertation is on the control of high-dimensional systems and on timed specifications that impose explicit time bounds on the satisfaction of tasks. This work proposes and evaluates methods and algorithms for synthesizing provably correct control policies that deal with the scalability problems. Ideas and tools from formal verification, graph theory, and incremental computing are used to synthesize satisfying control strategies. Finite abstractions of the systems are generated, and then composed with automata encoding the specifications. The first part of this dissertation introduces a sampling-based motion planning algorithm that combines long-term temporal logic goals with short-term reactive requirements. The specification has two parts: (1) a global specification given as an LTL formula over a set of static service requests that occur at the regions of a known environment, and (2) a local specification that requires servicing a set of dynamic requests that can be sensed locally during the execution. The proposed computational framework consists of two main ingredients: (a) an off-line sampling-based algorithm for the construction of a global transition system that contains a path satisfying the LTL formula, and (b) an on-line sampling-based algorithm to generate paths that service the local requests, while making sure that the satisfaction of the global specification is not affected. The second part of the dissertation focuses on stochastic systems with temporal and uncertainty constraints. A specification language called Gaussian Distribution Temporal Logic is introduced as an extension of Boolean logic that incorporates temporal evolution and noise mitigation directly into the task specifications. A sampling-based algorithm to synthesize control policies is presented that generates a transition system in the belief space and uses local feedback controllers to break the curse of history associated with belief space planning. Switching control policies are then computed using a product Markov Decision Process between the transition system and the Rabin automaton encoding the specification.The approach is evaluated in experiments using a camera network and ground robot. The third part of this dissertation focuses on control of multi-vehicle systems with timed specifications and charging constraints. A rich expressivity language called Time Window Temporal Logic (TWTL) that describes time bounded specifications is introduced. The temporal relaxation of TWTL formulae with respect to the deadlines of tasks is also discussed. The key ingredient of the solution is an algorithm to translate a TWTL formula to an annotated finite state automaton that encodes all possible temporal relaxations of the given formula. The annotated automata are composed with transition systems encoding the motion of all vehicles, and with charging models to produce control strategies for all vehicles such that the overall system satisfies the mission specification. The methods are evaluated in simulation and experimental trials with quadrotors and charging stations.

[pt] O transporte e os estoques correspondem a maior parte dos custos logísticos de uma empresa. Com o avanço da tecnologia, passou-se a analisar em conjunto esses dois componentes e não mais separados, como era feito anteriormente. O Problema de Roteirização de Veículos com Estoque (Inventory Routing Problem – IRP), nasceu dessa análise conjunta e procura encontrar a melhor rota para os veículos, atendendo a um determinado nível de estoque. Este trabalho apresenta um modelo de IRP com múltiplos veículos e produtos, onde existe a possibilidade de transbordo entre os centros de distribuição existentes. O modelo desenvolvido foi elaborado em um estudo de caso real em uma empresa do setor varejista. Após sua elaboração, o modelo foi testado com uma instância menor e comparado a situação atual da empresa, a fim de testar sua eficiência. Em seguida, foi rodado com os dados completos da empresa, e foram analisados os resultados. Na resolução, foi utilizado o software Xpress, o qual utiliza programação inteira como método de resolução. / [en] Transport and inventories account for most of a company s logistics costs. With the advancement of technology, we began to analyze these two components together and no longer separate, as was done previously. The Inventory Routing Problem (IRP) was born from this joint analysis and seeks to find the best route for the vehicles, meeting a certain level of inventory. This work presents an IRP model with multiple vehicles and products, where there is the possibility of transshipment between existing distribution centers. The developed model was elaborated in a real case study in a company of the retail sector. After its elaboration, the model was tested with a smaller instance and compared to the current situation of the company in order to test its efficiency. It was then run with the complete company data, and the results were analyzed. In the resolution, Xpress software was used, which uses integer programming as the resolution method.

Dans le problème de tournées avec gestion de stock ou "Inventory Routing Problem" (IRP), le fournisseur a pour mission de surveiller les niveaux de stock d'un ensemble de clients et gérer leur approvisionnement en prenant simultanément en compte les coûts de transport et de stockage. Etant données les nouvelles exigences de développement durable et de transport écologique, nous étudions l'IRP sous une perspective énergétique, peu de travaux s'étant intéressés à cet aspect. Plus précisément, la thèse identifie les facteurs principaux influençant la consommation d'énergie et évalue les gains potentiels qu'une meilleure planification des approvisionnements permet de réaliser. Un problème relatif à l'approvisionnement en composants de chaînes d'assemblage d'automobiles est tout d'abord considéré pour lequel la masse transportée, la dynamique du véhicule et la distance parcourue sont identifiés comme les principaux facteurs impactant la consommation énergétique. Ce résultat est étendu à l'IRP classique et les gains potentiels en termes d'énergie sont analysés. Un problème industriel de tournées avec gestion de stock est ensuite étudié et résolu, notamment à l'aide d'une méthode de génération de colonnes. Ce problème met en évidence les limitations du modèle IRP classique, ce qui nous a amené à définir un modèle d'IRP plus réaliste. Finalement, une méthode de décomposition basée sur la relaxation lagrangienne est développée pour la résolution de ce problème dans le but de minimiser la consommation énergétique / The thesis studies the Inventory Routing Problem (IRP) with explicit energy consideration. Under the Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI) model, the IRP is an integration of the inventory management and routing, where both inventory storage and transportation costs are taken into account. Under the new sustainability paradigm, green transport and logistics has become an emerging area of study, but few research focus on the ecological aspect of the classical IRP. Since the classical IRP concentrates solely on the economic benefits, it is worth studying under the energy perspective. The thesis gives an estimation of the energetic gain that a better supplying plan can provide. More specifically, this thesis integrates the energy consumption into the decision of the inventory replenishment and routing. It starts with a part supplying problem in car assembly lines, where the transported mass, the vehicle dynamics and the travelled distance are identified as main energy influencing factors. This result is extended to the classical IRP with energy objective to show the potential energy reduction that can be achieved. Then, an industrial challenge of IRP is presented and solved using a column generation approach. This problem put the limitations of the classical IRP model in evidence, which brings us to define a more realistic IRP model on a multigraph. Finally, a Lagrangian relaxation method is presented for solving this new model with the aim of energy minimization.