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The downhill plow problem with multiple plows

Author

Listed:
  • Benjamin Dussault

    (Department of Applied Mathematics and Statistics, University of Maryland, College Park, USA)

  • Bruce Golden

    (Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland, College Park, USA)

  • Edward Wasil

    (American University, Washington, USA)

Abstract

In winter, a common problem is to determine a set of routes for snow plows that minimize the maximum route length. Typically, this is modelled as an arc routing problem. We begin with a variant that is motivated by the fact that deadhead travel over streets is significantly faster than the time it takes to plow the street. We incorporate the use of multiple plows and the observation that, on steep streets, it is much more difficult, or impossible, to plow uphill. Therefore, we want to design routes that try to avoid plowing uphill on steep streets and take advantage of the faster traversal time for deadheading. We generalize this problem to include multiple plows and seek to minimize the maximum route length. We present a heuristic that generates solutions with costs that are very close to a lower bound.

Suggested Citation

  • Benjamin Dussault & Bruce Golden & Edward Wasil, 2014. "The downhill plow problem with multiple plows," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 65(10), pages 1465-1474, October.
  • Handle: RePEc:pal:jorsoc:v:65:y:2014:i:10:p:1465-1474
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Lu, Jiawei & Nie, Qinghui & Mahmoudi, Monirehalsadat & Ou, Jishun & Li, Chongnan & Zhou, Xuesong Simon, 2022. "Rich arc routing problem in city logistics: Models and solution algorithms using a fluid queue-based time-dependent travel time representation," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 166(C), pages 143-182.
    2. Brunner, Carlos & Giesen, Ricardo & Klapp, Mathias A. & Flórez-Calderón, Luz, 2021. "Vehicle routing problem with steep roads," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 151(C), pages 1-17.
    3. Ávila, Thais & Corberán, Ángel & Plana, Isaac & Sanchis, José M., 2016. "A branch-and-cut algorithm for the profitable windy rural postman problem," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 249(3), pages 1092-1101.
    4. Thibaut Vidal, 2017. "Node, Edge, Arc Routing and Turn Penalties: Multiple Problems—One Neighborhood Extension," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 65(4), pages 992-1010, August.

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