Real Time Vehicle Routing in Large Networks- Introducing Global Optimization

The problems treated in this book are very simple in nature: how to route nvehicles in real time in a fast varying environment to pickup and deliver mpassengers when both n and m are large? These problems are very relevantto future transportation options involving large scale real-time routing ofshared-ride fleet transit vehicles. But even if the nature of these problemslooks so simple solving them is not so straight forward specially finding fastand reliable solutions. Traditionally dynamic routing solutions were found asstatic approximations for smaller-scale problems or using local heuristics forthe larger-scale ones. Generally heuristics used for these types of problems donot consider global optimality. This work develops a hierarchical methodologyto solve these types of problems in three stages seeking globaloptimality.The book first introduces the problems treated secondly presents the maincharacteristics of the proposed methodology followed by insights on each ofthe proposed stages. Then a general framework to use the proposedmethodology for any vehicle routing problem is presented. Finally a realapplication is presented.The work is addressed to professionals and researchers working on vehiclerouting and network optimization issues.