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Data mule scheduling on a path with handling time and time span constraints

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Abstract

In this paper, we study a data mule scheduling problem in which data mules are dispatched from a depot to serve targets located on a path. Every target sensor has a handling time, and every data mule is required to return to the depot before time span D. The goal is to minimize the number of data mules. For uniform handling time, a linear-time algorithm is presented. For non-uniform handling time, NP-hardness is proved and an approximation algorithm with a guaranteed approximation ratio is presented.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Mathematics and Computer Sciences, Zhejiang Normal University, Jinhua, 321004, Zhejiang, China

    Zhihao Chen, Zhao Zhang & Yingli Ran

  2. Institute of Information Science, Academia Sinica, Taibei, 11529, Taiwan

    Yishuo Shi

  3. Department of Computer Science, University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX, 75080, USA

    Ding-Zhu Du

Authors
  1. Zhihao Chen
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  2. Zhao Zhang
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  3. Yingli Ran
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  4. Yishuo Shi
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  5. Ding-Zhu Du
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Zhao Zhang or Ding-Zhu Du.

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This research is supported by NSFC (11771013, 11531011, 61751303) and ZJNSFC (LD19A010001, LY19A010018).

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Chen, Z., Zhang, Z., Ran, Y. et al. Data mule scheduling on a path with handling time and time span constraints. Optim Lett 14, 1701–1710 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11590-019-01463-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11590-019-01463-4

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