Solving vehicle routing problem for multistorey buildings using iterated local search

Abstract

Vehicle routing problem (VRP) which is a well-known combinatorial optimisation problem that has manyapplications used in industry is also a generalised form of the travelling salesman problem. In this study, we definedand formulated the VRP in multistorey buildings (Multistorey VRP) for the first time and proposed a solving methodemploying iterated local search metaheuristic algorithm. This variant of VRP has a great potential for turning thedirection of optimisation research and applications to the vertical cities area as well as the horizontal ones. Routes ofpart picking or placing vehicles/humans in multistorey plants can be minimised by this way. VRP can also be appliedto the optimisation of delivering the packages (goods, meals, folders, mails, etc.) to rooms or locations of the structuressuch as buildings, and skyscrapers for travelling robots/humans using elevators and stairs. The first detailed multistoreybuilding optimisation experiments were conducted by designing a series of scenarios with different parameter values(number of storeys, connections between storeys and customers). The results were presented and the effects of thevarious building structures over the performance were discussed.