Safety Aware Vehicle Routing Algorithm, A Weighted Sum Approach

Driving is an essential part of work life for many people. Although driving can be enjoyable and pleasant, it can also be stressful and dangerous. Many people around the world are killed or seriously injured while driving. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), about 1.25 million people die each year as a result of road traffic crashes. Road traffic injuries are also the leading cause of death among young people. To prevent traffic injuries, governments must address road safety issues, an endeavor that requires involvement from multiple sectors (transport, police, health, education). Effective intervention should include designing safer infrastructure and incorporating road safety features into land-use and transport planning. The aim of this research is to design an algorithm to help drivers find the safest path between two locations. Such an algorithm can be used to find the safest path for a school bus travelling between bus stops, a heavy truck carrying inflammable materials, poison gas, or explosive cargo, or any driver who wants to avoid roads with higher numbers of accidents. In these applications, a path is safe if the danger factor on either side of the path is no more than a given upper bound. Since travel time is another important consideration for all drivers, the suggested algorithm utilizes traffic data to consider travel time when searching for the safest route. The key achievements of the work presented in this thesis are summarized as follows. Defining the Safest and Quickest Path Problem (SQPP), in which the goal is to find a short and low-risk path between two locations in a road network at a given point of time. Current methods for representing road networks, travel times and safety level were investigated. Two approaches to defining road safety level were identified, and some methods in each approach were presented. An intensive review of traffic routing algorithms was conducted to identify the most well-known algorithms. An empirical study was also conducted to evaluate the performance of some routing algorithms, using metrics such as scalability and computation time. This research approaches the SQPP problem as a bi-objective Shortest Path Problem (SPP), for which the proposed Safety Aware Algorithm (SAA) aims to output one quickest and safest route. The experiments using this algorithm demonstrate its efficacy and practical applicability

A mean-variance model for stochastic time-dependent networks.

Traditional models of route generation are based on choosing routes that minimize expected travel-time between origin and destination. The variance of the least-time path is not included in the path selection. In addition, due to congestion in transportation networks, travel times are time-dependent and stochastic in nature. This research focuses on the time dependency as well as the stochastic nature of traffic flow.The computational performance of the algorithms was evaluated through numerical experiments using randomly generated networks. A regression curve relating the running time to number of nodes, arc density, number of time intervals, and the number of discrete arc travel times has been generated for each algorithm. The results show that number of nodes and arc density influence the running time worse than linearly. The proposed algorithms were illustrated using a real-life network and near-real time travel information between Beverly Hills and Garden Grove in Los Angeles, California. The data was generated using the Freeway Performance Measurement System (PaMS) run by California Department of Transportation and the University of California at Berkeley. The illustration showed that more research is needed in extracting travel time information from real-life data which is vast and influenced by several factors such as the day of the week, holidays, time of the day, accidents. However, through the illustration we were able to demonstrate how the proposed algorithms can be used with near real-time information.Two algorithms are developed for determining a minimum travel time variance path and minimum mean-variance path assuming a priori best path routing policy. Under this policy, drivers use the path that corresponds to the minimum travel time variance to their destination node determined prior to the actual departure time at an origin node. We prove that both algorithms reach the optimal solution in finite number of steps but have non-polynomial running times. In addition, two algorithms, specialized modified label correcting and label setting algorithms, are developed for determining minimum mean-variance travel time path for time-adaptive routing problem. These algorithms allow the travel to define the route as he/she travels from the origin to the destination. Both algorithms reach optimal solution in finite number of steps and have polynomial computational complexity

Least Expected Time Paths in Stochastic Schedule-Based Transit Networks

We consider the problem of determining a least expected time (LET) path that minimizes the number of transfers and the expected total travel time in a stochastic schedule-based transit network. A time-dependent model is proposed to represent the stochastic transit network where vehicle arrival times are fully stochastically correlated. An exact label-correcting algorithm is developed, based on a proposed dominance condition by which Bellman’s principle of optimality is valid. Experimental results, which are conducted on the Ho Chi Minh City bus network, show that the running time of the proposed algorithm is suitable for real-time operation, and the resulting LET paths are robust against uncertainty, such as unknown traffic scenarios

New Techniques and Algorithms for Multiobjective and Lexicographic Goal-Based Shortest Path Problems

Shortest Path Problems (SPP) are one of the most extensively studied problems in the fields of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Operations Research (OR). It consists in finding the shortest path between two given nodes in a graph such that the sum of the weights of its constituent arcs is minimized. However, real life problems frequently involve the consideration of multiple, and often conflicting, criteria. When multiple objectives must be simultaneously optimized, the concept of a single optimal solution is no longer valid. Instead, a set of efficient or Pareto-optimal solutions define the optimal trade-off between the objectives under consideration. The Multicriteria Search Problem (MSP), or Multiobjective Shortest Path Problem, is the natural extension to the SPP when more than one criterion are considered. The MSP is computationally harder than the single objective one. The number of label expansions can grow exponentially with solution depth, even for the two objective case. However, with the assumption of bounded integer costs and a fixed number of objectives the problem becomes tractable for polynomially sized graphs. A wide variety of practical application in different fields can be identified for the MSP, like robot path planning, hazardous material transportation, route planning, optimization of public transportation, QoS in networks, or routing in multimedia networks. Goal programming is one of the most successful Multicriteria Decision Making (MCDM) techniques used in Multicriteria Optimization. In this thesis we explore one of its variants in the MSP. Thus, we aim to solve the Multicriteria Search Problem with lexicographic goal-based preferences. To do so, we build on previous work on algorithm NAMOA*, a successful extension of the A* algorithm to the multiobjective case. More precisely, we provide a new algorithm called LEXGO*, an exact label-setting algorithm that returns the subset of Pareto-optimal paths that satisfy a set of lexicographic goals, or the subset that minimizes deviation from goals if these cannot be fully satisfied. Moreover, LEXGO* is proved to be admissible and expands only a subset of the labels expanded by an optimal algorithm like NAMOA*, which performs a full Multiobjective Search. Since time rather than memory is the limiting factor in the performance of multicriteria search algorithms, we also propose a new technique called t-discarding to speed up dominance checks in the process of discarding new alternatives during the search. The application of t-discarding to the algorithms studied previously, NAMOA* and LEXGO*, leads to the introduction of two new time-efficient algorithms named NAMOA*dr and LEXGO*dr , respectively. All the algorithmic alternatives are tested in two scenarios, random grids and realistic road maps problems. The experimental evaluation shows the effectiveness of LEXGO* in both benchmarks, as well as the dramatic reductions of time requirements experienced by the t-discarding versions of the algorithms, with respect to the ones with traditional pruning

Solving the waste collection problem from a multiobjective perspective: New methodologies and case studies

Fecha de lectura Tesis Doctoral: 19 de marzo de 2018.Economía Aplicada ( Matemáticas) Resumen tesis: El tratamiento de residuos es un tema de estudio por parte de las administraciones locales a nivel mundial. Distintos factores han de tenerse en cuenta para realizar un servicio eficiente. En este trabajo se desarrolla una herramienta para analizar y resolver el problema de la recogida de residuos sólidos en Málaga. Tras un análisis exhaustivo de los datos, se aborda el problema real como un problema de rutas multiobjetivo con capacidad limitada. Para los problemas multiobjetivo, no suele existir una única solución óptima, sino un conjunto de soluciones eficientes de Pareto. Las características del problema hacen inviable su resolución de forma exacta, por lo que se aplican distintas estrategias metaheurísticas para obtener una buena aproximación. En particular, se combinan las técnicas de GRASP, Path Relinking y Variable Neighborhood Search, que son adaptadas a la perspectiva multicriterio. Se trata de una aproximación en dos fases: una primera aproximación de la frontera eficiente se genera mediante un GRASP multiobjetivo. Tres son los métodos propuestos para la primera aproximación, dos de ellos derivados de la publicación de Martí et al. (2015) y el último se apoya en la función escalarizada de logro de Wierzbicki (Wierzbicki, 1980) para distintas combinaciones de pesos. A continuación, esta aproximación es mejorada con una versión de Path Relinking o Variable Neighborhood Search, con un punto de referencia diseñado para problemas multiobjetivo. Una vez generada la aproximación de la frontera eficiente, el proceso de obtención de la solución que más se adecúa a las preferencias de los gestores se basa en el desarrollo de un método interactivo sin trade – off, derivado de la filosofía NAUTILUS (Miettinen et al. 2010). Para evitar gastos de cómputo extensos, esta metodología se apoya en una pre - computación de los elementos de la frontera eficiente

Calcul d'itinéraire multimodal et multiobjectif en milieu urbain

With the growth of environmental awareness and high energy prices, more and more people use public transport, cycle or walk. However, just one mean of transport cannot cover all the transportation needs. Therefor, combining different means of transport is often an interesting solution. Finding the best multimodal route for a given person is a hard task. Every person has different opinions concerning the duration, the cost, pollution, number of changes etc. Even the same person might choose different paths depending on circumstances: if it's raining he will not cycle and if he has to carry heavy luggages, he will avoid changes. Multicriteria optimization allows to suggest multiple solutions that are said to be equivalent. The user will chose the route that fits the best according to his preferences at a given moment. The main problem to solve is the shortest multimodal time dependent path. The challenge is to have results in less than a second on a large city in order to have a real life application. A great care has been taken to remain simple an generic. We do not restrict the number of means of transport nor the considered objectives. We adapted algorithms known for their theoretical or experimental performances in order to take in account the time dependency or to be multiobjective. Well also suggest heuristics to keep computation time around one second. The algorithms have been tested with success on San Francisco, Los Angeles and Rennes.Par conscience environnementale ou à cause des coûts de l'énergie, de plus en plus de personnes utilisent les transports en commun ou les transports doux. Cependant, un seul mode de transport ne peut pas couvrir tous les besoins. De ce fait, la combinaison de différents modes de transport est une solution très intéressante. Trouver le meilleur chemin multimodal pour une personne donnée est une tâche difficile. Chaque personne a des préférences différentes concernant la durée, le coût, la pollution, les changements, etc. De plus, le choix d'un même usager dépendent des circonstances. S'il pleut, il ne prendra pas le vélo et s'il a des bagages encombrants, il évitera les changements. L'optimisation multiobjectif permet de proposer plusieurs solutions dites équivalentes. Ainsi l'utilisateur choisira l'itinéraire qui lui convient en fonction de ses préférences à un moment donné. Le problème principal à résoudre est donc celui du plus court chemin multiobjectif de point à point dépendant du temps. L'enjeu est d'être capable d'avoir des résultats de l'ordre de la seconde pour une grande ville pour envisager une application réelle. Une attention particulière a été portée sur la simplicité et la généricité des approches proposées. Nous ne nous restreignons pas à un nombre prédéfini de modes de transport ou d'objectifs. Plusieurs algorithmes réputés pour leurs performances théoriques ou expérimentales ont été adaptés au cas multiobjectif ou à la dépendance du temps. Nous avons également proposé des heuristiques permettant de garder le temps de calcul de l'ordre de la seconde