A general modeling and simulation framework for dynamic vehicle routing

In dynamic vehicle routing problems (DVRPs), some part of the information is revealed or changed on the fly, and the decision maker has the opportunity to re-plan the vehicle routes during their execution, reflecting on the changes. Accordingly, the solution to a DVRP is a flexible policy rather tha...

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Main Authors: Markó Horváth, Tímea Tamási
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2025-01-01
Series:EURO Journal on Transportation and Logistics
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Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2192437625000081
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author Markó Horváth
Tímea Tamási
author_facet Markó Horváth
Tímea Tamási
author_sort Markó Horváth
collection DOAJ
description In dynamic vehicle routing problems (DVRPs), some part of the information is revealed or changed on the fly, and the decision maker has the opportunity to re-plan the vehicle routes during their execution, reflecting on the changes. Accordingly, the solution to a DVRP is a flexible policy rather than a set of fixed routes. A policy is a problem-specific algorithm that is invoked at various decision points in the planning horizon and returns a decision according to the current state. Since DVRPs involve dynamic decision making, a simulator is an essential tool for dynamically testing and evaluating the policies. Despite this, there are few tools available that are specifically designed for this purpose. To fill this gap, we have developed a simulation framework that is suitable for a wide range of dynamic vehicle routing problems and allows to dynamically test different policies for the given problem. In this paper, we present the background of this simulation tool, for which we proposed a general modeling framework suitable for formalizing DVRPs independently of simulation purposes. Our open source simulation tool is already available, easy to use, and easily customizable, making it a useful tool for the research community.
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spelling doaj-art-e59f70ff717d49cfbf2bc17412e11f092025-08-20T02:58:34ZengElsevierEURO Journal on Transportation and Logistics2192-43842025-01-011410015910.1016/j.ejtl.2025.100159A general modeling and simulation framework for dynamic vehicle routingMarkó Horváth0Tímea Tamási1HUN-REN Institute for Computer Science and Control, H-1111 Budapest, Kende u. 13-17, Hungary; Corresponding author.Department of Operations Research, Institute of Mathematics, ELTE Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary; HUN-REN Institute for Computer Science and Control, H-1111 Budapest, Kende u. 13-17, HungaryIn dynamic vehicle routing problems (DVRPs), some part of the information is revealed or changed on the fly, and the decision maker has the opportunity to re-plan the vehicle routes during their execution, reflecting on the changes. Accordingly, the solution to a DVRP is a flexible policy rather than a set of fixed routes. A policy is a problem-specific algorithm that is invoked at various decision points in the planning horizon and returns a decision according to the current state. Since DVRPs involve dynamic decision making, a simulator is an essential tool for dynamically testing and evaluating the policies. Despite this, there are few tools available that are specifically designed for this purpose. To fill this gap, we have developed a simulation framework that is suitable for a wide range of dynamic vehicle routing problems and allows to dynamically test different policies for the given problem. In this paper, we present the background of this simulation tool, for which we proposed a general modeling framework suitable for formalizing DVRPs independently of simulation purposes. Our open source simulation tool is already available, easy to use, and easily customizable, making it a useful tool for the research community.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2192437625000081Dynamic vehicle routingModeling frameworkSimulation frameworkDiscrete-event based decision process
spellingShingle Markó Horváth
Tímea Tamási
A general modeling and simulation framework for dynamic vehicle routing
EURO Journal on Transportation and Logistics
Dynamic vehicle routing
Modeling framework
Simulation framework
Discrete-event based decision process
title A general modeling and simulation framework for dynamic vehicle routing
title_full A general modeling and simulation framework for dynamic vehicle routing
title_fullStr A general modeling and simulation framework for dynamic vehicle routing
title_full_unstemmed A general modeling and simulation framework for dynamic vehicle routing
title_short A general modeling and simulation framework for dynamic vehicle routing
title_sort general modeling and simulation framework for dynamic vehicle routing
topic Dynamic vehicle routing
Modeling framework
Simulation framework
Discrete-event based decision process
url http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2192437625000081
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