Exact methods for solving the small scale single vehicle pickup and delivery problem with time windows

Abstract

The single vehicle pickup and delivery problem with time windows (1-PDPTW) is a wellknown problem in transportation and combinatorics. In practice, these routes are relatively small with less then 30 stops. In this thesis, we consider two exact methods to solve this problem for small instance sizes. The first is solving the corresponding MIP-model using commercial linear programming software and the second is a forward dynamic programming algorithm. The motivation for this thesis is to determine the usability of exact methods as a heuristic to solve the multi vehicle pickup and delivery problem.