The role of fuzzy sets in improving maximal covering location problem (MCLP)

In this paper an extension of fuzzy maximal covering location time problem (FMCLP) is presented. The travel times are considered to be linear, trapezoidal or Gaussian fuzzy numbers and the radius is considered to be a fuzzy set of a right shoulder type. For obtaining the distance a fuzzy ordering relation was used to compare distances to the radius. In order to solve the FMCLP problem we used discrete particle swarm optimization (DPSO) algorithm. Theoretical results show that the proposed DPSO algorithm is very competitive for FMCLP problem.