Author(s)

M. Kefi & K. Ghédira

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to present a coalition based multi-agent model for the Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Windows, which is one of the most important ones in distribution and transportation. The VRPTW objective is to design least cost routes from one depot to a set of customers. A fleet of homogeneous vehicles performs the routes to serve all the customers, while respecting capacity and time window constraints. The proposed model is detailed, illustrated through a numerical example, experimented on the base of Solomon s benchmark and compared to the optimal solution. Keywords: vehicle routing problem, multi-agent system, coalition formation, negotiation protocol. 1 Introduction The VRPTW is an important problem occurring in many distribution systems. Some of the most useful applications of the VRPTW include bank deliv

Keywords