A Hybrid Optimization Solution to VRPTW Based on Simulated Annealing

Recently, routing and scheduling of vehicles represented a crucial issue in lots of logistic and transport systems due to the importance of selecting efficient distribution strategies with considering economic significance. Simulated annealing algorithm (SA) is a local search technique that can potentially yield near-optimal solutions to many difficult optimization problems, such as the vehicle routing problem with time windows (VRPTW). A hybrid optimization method that combines the evaluation function with the improved SA algorithm is proposed to treat the VRPTW in this paper. The simulated experiments demonstrate that it´s an efficient solution to the large-scale VRPTW, and with regards to traditional SA algorithm, the computer costs are saved markedly.