A Heuristic Initialized Stochastic Memetic Algorithm for MDPVRP With Interdependent Depot Operations

The vehicle routing problem (VRP) is a widely studied combinatorial optimization problem. We introduce a variant of the multidepot and periodic VRP (MDPVRP) and propose a heuristic initialized stochastic memetic algorithm to solve it. The main challenge in designing such an algorithm for a large combinatorial optimization problem is to avoid premature convergence by maintaining a balance between exploration and exploitation of the search space. We employ intelligent initialization and stochastic learning to address this challenge. The intelligent initialization technique constructs a population by a mix of random and heuristic generated solutions. The stochastic learning enhances the solutions' quality selectively using simulated annealing with a set of random and heuristic operators. The hybridization of randomness and greediness in the initialization…