Greedy and Adaptive Algorithms for Multi-Depot Vehicle Routing with Object Alternation

This paper considers the multi-depot vehicle routing problem with object alternation. We propose a formal statement of the problem with two types of objects and a mathematical model with two blocks of Boolean variables. First, the model is studied without gathering vehicles (mobile objects). Then, a special object (a single collection point) is introduced in the model. We show additional constraints of the mathematical model with this object. Special attention is paid to the condition of no subcycles. This condition is considered based on the adjacency matrix. Five greedy algorithms are proposed for solving the problem, two of which are iterative. One of the greedy algorithms is given a probabilistic modification based on the randomization of variables (an adaptive algorithm). Finally, the proposed algorithms are compared in terms of the average value of the objective function and the running time in a computational experiment. Also, the results of another experiment—the parametric tuning of the adaptive algorithm—are presented.