Solving Vehicle Routing Problem with Simultaneous Delivery and Pick-up Using Bacterial Foraging Optimization Algorithm

The vehicle routing problem with simultaneous delivery and pick-up (VRPSDP) is a type of the classical vehicle routing problem (VRP) where customers require simultaneous delivery and pick-up service. Deliveries are supplied from a single depot at the beginning of the vehicle’s service, while pick-up loads are taken to the same depot at the end of the service. The objective is to determine the optimal set of routes to satisfy both the delivery and pick-up demand of the customers. VRPSDP is an NP-hard combinatorial optimization problem; therefore exact methods are incapable of dealing with large scale VRPSDP instances. For this reason, in recent years, it is observed that studies have been focused on metaheuristic methods. In this study, a heuristic solution approach based on Bacterial Foraging Optimization Algorithm (BFOA) which is an algorithmic approach inspired by the foraging behavior of bacteria, has been proposed and its performance has been evaluated. In the scope of this study, VRPSDP is solved in order to minimize the total distance travelled and the results have been compared with the insertion based heuristic algorithm. The proposed algorithm is tested using a benchmark data set available from the literature. The computational result shows that the proposed method is generally better than the insertion based algorithm.