Optimization of the Logistics of Extra-curricular Activities

Most of the children develop extra-curricular activities in the afternoon after the school timetable. These activities are generally organized in each school, but sometimes the amount de scholars interested in one activity is very limited; the school has a few available resources or the preferences of their students do not match with the facilities. To expand the number of activities offered to the students in a school the creation of clusters that group different schools is proposed. But also a transport problem appears as the children should be moved from one school to another, where they can enjoy their preferred activities. Therefore, this can be considered a School Bus Routing Problem (SBRP). We define a procedure of several steps. First, a heuristic is implemented to obtain the clusters. Subsequently, the assignment of activities and the optimal path between cluster's members are determined. The proposed children transport is based on the availability of one or two buses per cluster. This model has been applied to the schools in Barcelona.