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A multi-objective capacitated rural school bus routing problem with heterogeneous fleet and mixed loads

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Abstract

Four multi-objective meta-heuristic algorithms are presented to solve a multi-objective capacitated rural school bus routing problem with a heterogeneous fleet and mixed loads. Three objectives are considered: the total weighted traveling time of the students, the balance of routes among drivers, and the routing costs. The proposed methods were compared with one from the literature, and their performance assessed observing three multi-objective metrics: cardinality, coverage, and hyper-volume. All four devised methods outperformed the one from the literature. The algorithm with a path relinking procedure embedded during the crowding distance selection scheme had the best overall performance.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the state government of Minas Gerais, by the National Fund for Education Development (FNDE), and by Foundation of Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES) of Brazil, and by the Research Foundation of Minas Gerais (FAPEMIG)—Grant # APQ-02508-13—and the Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq).

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Correspondence to Fátima M. de Souza Lima.

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de Souza Lima, F.M., Pereira, D.S.D., da Conceição, S.V. et al. A multi-objective capacitated rural school bus routing problem with heterogeneous fleet and mixed loads. 4OR-Q J Oper Res 15, 359–386 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10288-017-0340-8

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