Ant colony optimization for vehicle routing problem and inventory routing problem with backorder

This study focuses on developing the Population-based Ant Colony Optimization (P-ACO) by embedding three different types of mutation operators: exchanging, shifting, as well as removing and inserting to solve Split Pickup Vehicle Routing Problem (SPVRP). The SPVRP model is then extended to solve the Inventory Routing Problem with Backorder (IRPB). IRPB is a combination of VRP and Inventory - Backordering management. An adaptive inventory-backordering updating mechanism based on the pheromones values is embedded into the developed algorithm to solve IRPB. The computational experiments are done to test the efficiency of the developed algorithms.