Formulations and exact algorithms for the distance-constrained generalized directed rural postman problem

[EN] The generalized directed rural postman problem is an arc routing problem with many interesting real-life applications, such as routing for meter reading. In this application, a vehicle with a receiver travels through a series of neighborhoods. If the vehicle gets closer than a certain distance...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: Ávila, Thais, Corberán, Angel, Plana, Isaac, Sanchís Llopis, José María|||0000-0002-0039-8122
Format: article
Publication Date:2017
Country:España
Institution:Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV)
Repository:RiuNet. Repositorio Institucional de la Universitat Politécnica de Valéncia
Language:English
OAI Identifier:oai:riunet.upv.es:10251/107412
Online Access:https://riunet.upv.es/handle/10251/107412
Access Level:Open access
Keyword:Distance constrained
Multivehicle
Generalized directed rural postman problem
Close-enough arc routing problem
Branch-and-cut
MATEMATICA APLICADA
Description
Summary:[EN] The generalized directed rural postman problem is an arc routing problem with many interesting real-life applications, such as routing for meter reading. In this application, a vehicle with a receiver travels through a series of neighborhoods. If the vehicle gets closer than a certain distance to a meter, the receiver is able to record the gas, water, or electricity consumption. Therefore, the vehicle does not need to traverse every street, but only a few, to get close enough to each meter. We study an extension of this problem in which a fleet of vehicles is available. Given the characteristics of the mentioned application, the vehicles have no capacities but there is a maximum distance (or time) constraint all of them have to satisfy.We introduce four formulations for this problem, propose some families of valid inequalities, and present four branch-and-cut algorithms for its solution. The formulations and the algorithms are compared on a large set of instances.