A 53-approximation algorithm for scheduling vehicles on a path with release and handling times

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0020-0190(02)00474-XGet rights and content

Abstract

In this paper we study a particular type of vehicle routing problem that arises in the context of scheduling an automatic guided vehicle (AGV) in the Flexible Manufacturing paradigm. Here we consider the problem of scheduling the vehicle when the sites are located on a path and the depot is at some arbitrary location. The objective is to determine the schedule with minimum completion time such that each site is visited only after its release time and handling times are taken into consideration. We provide a 53-approximation algorithm for the same. This improves the previous approximation ratio of 2 due to Karuno, Nagamochi and Ibaraki [Ann. Oper. Res. 69 (1997) 193–207].

References (8)

  • Y. Karuno et al.

    A 1.5-approximation for single vehicle scheduling problem on a line with release and handling times

  • Y. Karuno et al.

    Vehicle scheduling on a tree with release and handling time

    Ann. Oper. Res.

    (1997)
  • Y. Karuno et al.

    A 2-approximation algorithm for multi-vehicle scheduling problem on a path with release and handling times

  • Y. Karuno et al.

    A polynomial time approximation scheme for the multi-vehicle scheduling problem on a path with release and handling times

There are more references available in the full text version of this article.

Cited by (25)

  • Emergency path restoration problems

    2012, Discrete Optimization
    Citation Excerpt :

    The purpose of this note is to introduce multi-server problems and to present low-order polynomial algorithms for two very broad classes of multi-server problems on networks of the simplest but practically important topology–path networks. A path network may represent an underground tunnel of a mine, a subway line, a railroad, a pipeline, etc.; routing-scheduling problems on paths received significant attention (see, e.g., [2–9]). We consider objectives that can be expressed as the sum or the maximum of nondecreasing functions of the recovery times of the nodes.

  • Routing open shop and flow shop scheduling problems

    2011, European Journal of Operational Research
    Citation Excerpt :

    Tsitsiklis (1992) discussed the complexity of various single-machine problems on a graph with a constant number of vertices or a line. Karuno et al. (1997, 2002), Gaur et al. (2003), Bhattacharya et al. (2008) and Yu and Liu (2010) presented approximation algorithms for different single-machine makespan problems with job release time constraints on a line, a tree or a cycle. Karuno and Nagamochi (2003, 2004) and Augustine and Seiden (2004) developed approximate solutions for some parallel-machine makespan problems on a line or a tree with a constant number of leaves.

  • Vehicle routing problems on a line-shaped network with release time constraints

    2009, Operations Research Letters
    Citation Excerpt :

    For convenience we denote the above VRP by L-VRP. Many problems in practical applications can be modeled by L-VRP or its variants (see [1–4]). Concerning the single-vehicle case of L-VRP, [3] shows that both the tour-version and the path-version can be solved in polynomial time.

  • Survey of research in the design and control of automated guided vehicle systems

    2006, European Journal of Operational Research
    Citation Excerpt :

    Analytical algorithms are presented in Blair et al. (1987) and Chen (1996). Gaur et al. (2003) study the problem of scheduling an AGV in a flexible manufacturing system while minimising completion times. A vehicle needs to visit each site only after its release time and before its due time.

View all citing articles on Scopus
View full text