Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Inspection Routing and Scheduling for Engineering Management

Technological advancements in unmanned aerial vehicles(UAVs)have revolutionized various industries,enabling the widespread adoption of UAV-based solutions.In engineering management,UAV-based inspection has emerged as a highly efficient method for identifying hidden risks in high-risk construction environments,surpassing traditional inspection techniques.Building on this foundation,this paper delves into the optimization of UAV inspection routing and scheduling,addressing the complexity introduced by factors such as no-fly zones,monitoring-interval time windows,and multiple monitoring rounds.To tackle this challenging problem,we propose a mixed-integer linear programming(MILP)model that optimizes inspection task assignments,monitoring sequence schedules,and charging decisions.The comprehensive consideration of these factors differentiates our problem from conventional vehicle routing problem(VRP),leading to a mathematically intractable model for commercial solvers in the case of large-scale instances.To overcome this limitation,we design a tailored variable neighborhood search(VNS)metaheuristic,customizing the algorithm to efficiently solve our model.Extensive numerical experiments are conducted to validate the efficacy of our proposed algorithm,demonstrating its scalability for both large-scale and real-scale instances.Sensitivity experiments and a case study based on an actual engineering project are also conducted,providing valuable insights for engineering managers to enhance inspection work efficiency.

An Overview and Experimental Study of Learning-Based Optimization Algorithms for the Vehicle Routing Problem

The vehicle routing problem(VRP)is a typical discrete combinatorial optimization problem,and many models and algorithms have been proposed to solve the VRP and its variants.Although existing approaches have contributed significantly to the development of this field,these approaches either are limited in problem size or need manual intervention in choosing parameters.To solve these difficulties,many studies have considered learning-based optimization(LBO)algorithms to solve the VRP.This paper reviews recent advances in this field and divides relevant approaches into end-to-end approaches and step-by-step approaches.We performed a statistical analysis of the reviewed articles from various aspects and designed three experiments to evaluate the performance of four representative LBO algorithms.Finally,we conclude the applicable types of problems for different LBO algorithms and suggest directions in which researchers can improve LBO algorithms.

Application of Improved Artificial Bee Colony Algorithm in Urban Vegetable Distribution Route Optimization

According to the characteristics and requirements of urban vegetable logistics and distribution, the optimization model is established to achieve the minimum distribution cost of distribution center. The algorithm of artificial bee colony is improved, and the algorithm based on MATLAB software is designed to solve the model successfully. At the same time, combined with the actual case, the two algorithms are compared to verify the effectiveness of the improved artificial bee colony algorithm in the optimization of urban vegetable distribution path.

An optimization model of UAV route planning for road segment surveillance

Unmanned aerial vehicle(UAV)was introduced to take road segment traffic surveillance.Considering the limited UAV maximum flight distance,UAV route planning problem was studied.First,a multi-objective optimization model of planning UAV route for road segment surveillance was proposed,which aimed to minimize UAV cruise distance and minimize the number of UAVs used.Then,an evolutionary algorithm based on Pareto optimality technique was proposed to solve multi-objective UAV route planning problem.At last,a UAV flight experiment was conducted to test UAV route planning effect,and a case with three scenarios was studied to analyze the impact of different road segment lengths on UAV route planning.The case results show that the optimized cruise distance and the number of UAVs used decrease by an average of 38.43% and 33.33%,respectively.Additionally,shortening or extending the length of road segments has different impacts on UAV route planning.

The Information Modeling and Intelligent Optimization Method for Logistics Vehicle Routing and Scheduling with Multi-objective and Multi-constraint

The vehicle routing and scheduling (VRS) problem with multi-objective and multi-constraint is analyzed, considering the complexity of the modern logistics in city economy and daily life based on the system engineering. The objective and constraint includes loading, the dispatch and arrival time, transportation conditions,total cost,etc. An information model and a mathematical model are built,and a method based on knowledge and biologic immunity is put forward for optimizing and evaluating the programs dimensions in vehicle routing and scheduling with multi-objective and multi-constraints. The proposed model and method are illustrated in a case study concerning a transport network, and the result shows that more optimization solutions can be easily obtained and the method is efficient and feasible. Comparing with the standard GA and the standard GA without time constraint,the computational time of the algorithm is less in this paper. And the probability of gaining optimal solution is bigger and the result is better under the condition of multi-constraint.

Design of Vehicle Routing by Integrating Optimization and Simulated Annealing Approach

The vehicle routing problem (VRP) can be described as the problem of designing the optimal delivery or collection routes from one or several depots to a number of geographically scattered customers, subject to load constraints. The routing decision involves determining which of the demand s will be satisfied by each vehicle and what route each vehicle will follow in s erving its assigned demand in order to minimize total delivery cost. In this pap er, a methodology for the design of VRP by integrating optimization and simulate d annealing (SA) approach is presented hierarchically. To express the problem of vehicle routing, a new mathematical formulation is first conducted. The objecti ve function involves both the delivery cost and the vehicle acquisition cost wit h load constraints. A heuristic is then proposed to solve this problem by using SA procedure in conjunction with any solution procedure of travelling salesman p roblem (TSP). The initial configuration is arranged as one vehicle route ser ving one customer. The SA searching procedure is then developed to combine custo mer to any one of the vehicle routes existed in the system if the capacity and c ost are attractive. An important concept of this proposed heuristic is that it attempts to minimize total number of vehicle required in the system on the b asis of the fixed cost and the variable cost view points. In addition, this appr oach can be easily adapted to accommodate many additional problem complexities.

A Hybrid TCNN Optimization Approach for the Capacity Vehicle Routing Problem

A novel approximation algorithm was proposed for the problem of finding the minimum total cost of all routes in Capacity Vehicle Routing Problem (CVRP). CVRP can be partitioned into three parts: the selection of vehicles among the available vehicles, the initial routing of the selected fleet and the routing optimization. Fuzzy C-means (FCM) can group the customers with close Euclidean distance into the same vehicle according to the principle of similar feature partition. Transiently chaotic neural network (TCNN) combines local search and global search, possessing high search efficiency. It will solve the routes to near optimality. A simple tabu search (TS) procedure can improve the routes to more optimality. The computations on benchmark problems and comparisons with other results in literatures show that the proposed algorithm is a viable and effective approach for CVRP.

GREEDY NON-DOMINATED SORTING IN GENETIC ALGORITHM-ⅡFOR VEHICLE ROUTING PROBLEM IN DISTRIBUTION

Vehicle routing problem in distribution （VRPD） is a widely used type of vehicle routing problem （VRP）, which has been proved as NP-Hard, and it is usually modeled as single objective optimization problem when modeling. For multi-objective optimization model, most researches consider two objectives. A multi-objective mathematical model for VRP is proposed, which considers the number of vehicles used, the length of route and the time arrived at each client. Genetic algorithm is one of the most widely used algorithms to solve VRP. As a type of genetic algorithm （GA）, non-dominated sorting in genetic algorithm-Ⅱ （NSGA-Ⅱ） also suffers from premature convergence and enclosure competition. In order to avoid these kinds of shortage, a greedy NSGA-Ⅱ （GNSGA-Ⅱ） is proposed for VRP problem. Greedy algorithm is implemented in generating the initial population, cross-over and mutation. All these procedures ensure that NSGA-Ⅱ is prevented from premature convergence and refine the performance of NSGA-Ⅱ at each step. In the distribution problem of a distribution center in Michigan, US, the GNSGA-Ⅱ is compared with NSGA-Ⅱ. As a result, the GNSGA-Ⅱ is the most efficient one and can get the most optimized solution to VRP problem. Also, in GNSGA-Ⅱ, premature convergence is better avoided and search efficiency has been improved sharply.

A Survey on the Vehicle Routing Problem and Its Variants

In this paper, we have conducted a literature review on the recent developments and publications involving the vehicle routing problem and its variants, namely vehicle routing problem with time windows (VRPTW) and the capacitated vehicle routing problem (CVRP) and also their variants. The VRP is classified as an NP-hard problem. Hence, the use of exact optimization methods may be difficult to solve these problems in acceptable CPU times, when the problem involves real-world data sets that are very large. The vehicle routing problem comes under combinatorial problem. Hence, to get solutions in determining routes which are realistic and very close to the optimal solution, we use heuristics and meta-heuristics. In this paper we discuss the various exact methods and the heuristics and meta-heuristics used to solve the VRP and its variants.

A Time-Dependent Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Windows for E-Commerce Supplier Site Pickups Using Genetic Algorithm

The VRP is classified as an NP-hard problem. Hence exact optimization methods may be difficult to solve these problems in acceptable CPU times, when the problem involves real-world data sets that are very large. To get solutions in determining routes which are realistic and very close to the actual solution, we use heuristics and metaheuristics which are of the combinatorial optimization type. A literature review of VRPTW, TDVRP, and a metaheuristic such as the genetic algorithm was conducted. In this paper, the implementation of the VRPTW and its extension, the time-dependent VRPTW (TDVRPTW) has been carried out using the model as well as metaheuristics such as the genetic algorithm (GA). The algorithms were implemented, using Matlab and HeuristicLab optimization software. A plugin was developed using Visual C# and DOT NET framework 4.5. Results were tested using Solomon’s 56 benchmark instances classified into groups such as C1, C2, R1, R2, RC1, RC2, with 100 customer nodes, 25 vehicles and each vehicle capacity of 200. The results were comparable to the earlier algorithms developed and in some cases the current algorithm yielded better results in terms of total distance travelled and the average number of vehicles used.

Multi-objective evolutionary approach for UAV cruise route planning to collect traffic information

Unmanned aerial vehicle(UAV)was introduced as a novel traffic device to collect road traffic information and its cruise route planning problem was considered.Firstly,a multi-objective optimization model was proposed aiming at minimizing the total cruise distance and the number of UAVs used,which used UAV maximum cruise distance,the number of UAVs available and time window of each monitored target as constraints.Then,a novel multi-objective evolutionary algorithm was proposed.Next,a case study with three time window scenarios was implemented.The results show that both the total cruise distance and the number of UAVs used continue to increase with the time window constraint becoming narrower.Compared with the initial optimal solutions,the optimal total cruise distance and the number of UAVs used fall by an average of 30.93% and 31.74%,respectively.Finally,some concerns using UAV to collect road traffic information were discussed.

Multi-Phase Meta-Heuristic for Multi-Depots Vehicle Routing Problem

In this work, we present a multi-phase hybrid algorithm based on clustering to solve the multi-depots vehicle routing problem (MDVRP). The proposed algorithm initially adopts K-means algorithm to execute the clustering analyses, which take the depots as the centroids of the clusters, for the all customers of MDVRP, then implements the local depth search using the Shuffled Frog Leaping Algorithm (SFLA) for every cluster, and then globally re-adjusts the solutions, i.e., rectifies positions of all frogs by the extremal optimization (EO). The processes will continue until the convergence criterions are satisfied. The results of experiments have shown that the proposed algorithm possesses outstanding performance to solve the MDVRP.

Research on Ecological Assessment and Dynamic Optimization of Energy-saving and New Energy Vehicle Business Model Based on Full Life Cycle Theory

The rapid development of China’s automobile industry has brought ever-increasing impact on resources,energy and environment,the energy-saving and new energy vehicles come into being accordingly.This article firstly systematically introduces the technical route of energy-saving and new energy vehicles of China,focusing on the key bottleneck problems arising from the construction process of current assessment system of the technical route for energy-saving and new energy vehicles,establishes the energy-saving and new energy vehicle business model assessment index system afterward based on the comparative analysis on energy-saving and new energy vehicle business assessment model and the full life cycle theory,and finally makes prospects and forecasts on vital problems of system boundary,dynamic optimization,simulation system of full life cycle assessment of energy-saving and new energy vehicle.

Bibliometric analysis and system review of vehicle routing optimization for emergency material distribution

Determining the optimal vehicle routing of emergency material distribution(VREMD)is one of the core issues of emergency management,which is strategically important to improve the effectiveness of emergency response and thus reduce the negative impact of large-scale emergency events.To summarize the latest research progress,we collected 511VREMD-related articles published from 2010 to the present from the Scopus database and conducted a bibliometric analysis using VOSviewer software.Subsequently,we cautiously selected 49 articles from these publications for system review;sorted out the latest research progress in model construction and solution algorithms;and summarized the evolution trend of keywords,research gaps,and future works.The results show that domestic scholars and research organizations held an unqualified advantage regarding the number of published papers.However,these organizations with the most publications performed poorly regarding the number of literature citations.China and the US have contributed the vast majority of the literature,and there are close collaborations between researchers from both countries.The optimization model of VREMD can be divided into single-,multi-,and joint-objective models.The shortest travel time is the most common optimization objective in the single-objective optimization model.Several scholars focus on multiobjective optimization models to consider conflicting objectives simultaneously.In recent literature,scholars have focused on the impact of uncertainty and special events(e.g.,COVID-19)on VREMD.Moreover,some scholars focus on joint optimization models to optimize vehicle routes and central locations(or material allocation)simultaneously.Solution algorithms can be divided into two primary categories,i.e.,mathematical planning methods and intelligent evolutionary algorithms.The branch and bound algorithm is the most dominant mathematical planning algorithm,while genetic algorithms and their enhancements are the most commonly used intelligent evolutionary algorithms.It is shown that the nondominated sorting genetic algorithmⅡ(NSGA-Ⅱ)can effectively solve the multiobjective model of VREMD.To further improve the algorithm’s performance,researchers have proposed improved hybrid intelligent algorithms that combine the advantages of NSGA-Ⅱand certain other algorithms.Scholars have also proposed a series of optimization algorithms for specific scenarios.With the development of new technologies and computation methods,it will be exciting to construct optimization models that consider uncertainty,heterogeneity,and temporality for large-scale real-world issues and develop generalized solution approaches rather than those applicable to specific scenarios.

Routing Protocol for Heterogeneous FANETs with Mobility Prediction

In recent years,with the growth in Unmanned Aerial Vehicles(UAVs),UAV-based systems have become popular in both military and civil applications.In these scenarios,the lack of reliable communication infrastructure has motivated UAVs to establish a network as flying nodes,also known as Flying Ad Hoc Networks(FANETs).However,in FANETs,the high mobility degree of flying and terrestrial users may be responsible for constant changes in the network topology,making end-to-end connections in FANETs challenging.Mobility estimation and prediction of UAVs can address the challenge mentioned above since it can provide better routing planning and improve overall FANET performance in terms of continuous service availability.We thus develop a Software Defined Network(SDN)-based heterogeneous architecture for reliable communication in FANETs.In this architecture,we apply an Extended Kalman Filter(EKF)for accurate mobility estimation and prediction of UAVs.In particular,we formulate the routing problem in SDN-based Heterogeneous FANETs as a graph decision problem.As the problem is NP-hard,we further propose a Directional Particle Swarming Optimization(DPSO)approach to solve it.The extensive simulation results demonstrate that the proposed DPSO routing can exhibit superior performance in improving the goodput,packet delivery ratio,and delay.

A New Approach to the Optimization of the CVRP through Genetic Algorithms

This paper presents a new approach to the analysis of complex distribution problems under capacity constraints. These problems are known in the literature as CVRPs (Capacitated Vehicle Routing Problems). The procedure introduced in this paper optimizes a transformed variant of a CVRP. It starts generating feasible clusters and codifies their ordering. In the next stage the procedure feeds this information into a genetic algorithm for its optimization. This makes the algorithm independent of the constraints and improves its performance. Van Breedam problems have been used to test this technique. While the results obtained are similar to those in other works, the processing times are longer.

Biogeography-Based Combinatorial Strategy for Efficient Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Motion Planning and Task-Time Management

自治在水下车辆(AUV ) 能够花执行的时间的长时期各种各样在水下使命和海洋的任务。在这份报纸，计划框架的一个新奇没有冲突的运动被介绍提高在水下由通过大规模 waypoint 在一有限时间完成最高的优先级任务的最大的数字的车辆使命性能混乱操作地，和保证安全推广在使命期间。建议组合线路路径规划者模型为单个车辆操作向两个高度降低的水平运动规划者的令人满意的目的和使命生产率的保证最大化拿基于生物地理学的优化(BBO ) 算法的优点。模型的性能在变化时间的操作的域里包括特别费用限制在不同情形下面被调查。为了显示出建议模型，的可靠性，独立估计的每个运动规划者然后统计分析的性能被承担评估全部模型的全部的表演。模拟结果为真实实验显示贡献模型和它的可行申请的稳定性。

A multi-agent deep reinforcement learning approach for solving the multi-depot vehicle routing problem

The multi-depot vehicle routing problem(MDVRP)is one of the most essential and useful variants of the traditional vehicle routing problem(VRP)in supply chain management(SCM)and logistics studies.Many supply chains(SC)choose the joint distribution of multiple depots to cut transportation costs and delivery times.However,the ability to deliver quality and fast solutions for MDVRP remains a challenging task.Traditional optimization approaches in operation research(OR)may not be practical to solve MDVRP in real-time.With the latest developments in artificial intelligence(AI),it becomes feasible to apply deep reinforcement learning(DRL)for solving combinatorial routing problems.This paper proposes a new multi-agent deep reinforcement learning(MADRL)model to solve MDVRP.Extensive experiments are conducted to evaluate the performance of the proposed approach.Results show that the developed MADRL model can rapidly capture relative information embedded in graphs and effectively produce quality solutions in real-time.

面向复杂物流配送场景的车辆路径规划多任务辅助进化算法

在现代社会中,复杂物流配送场景的车辆路径规划问题(Vehicle routing problem,VRP)一般带有时间窗约束且需要提供同时取送货的服务.这种复杂物流配送场景的车辆路径规划问题是NP-难问题.当其规模逐渐增大时,一般的数学规划方法难以求解,通常使用启发式方法在限定时间内求得较优解.然而,传统的启发式方法从原大规模问题直接开始搜索,无法利用先前相关的优化知识,导致收敛速度较慢.因此,提出面向复杂物流配送场景的车辆路径规划多任务辅助进化算法(Multitask-based assisted evolutionary algorithm,MBEA),通过使用迁移优化方法加快算法收敛速度,其主要思想是通过构造多个简单且相似的子任务用于辅助优化原大规模问题.首先从原大规模问题中随机选择一部分客户订单用于构建多个不同的相似优化子任务,然后使用进化多任务(Evolutional multitasking,EMT)方法用于生成原大规模问题和优化子任务的候选解.由于优化子任务相对简单且与原大规模问题相似,其搜索得到的路径特征可以通过任务之间的知识迁移辅助优化原大规模问题,从而加快其求解速度.最后,提出的算法在京东物流公司快递取送货数据集上进行验证,其路径规划效果优于当前最新提出的路径规划算法.