A simulated annealing algorithm for the capacitated vehicle routing problem

The Capacitated Vehicle Routing Problem (CVRP) is a combinatorial optimization problem where a fleet of delivery vehicles must service known customer demands from a common depot at a minimum transit cost without exceeding the capacity constraint of each vehicle. In this paper, we present a meta-heuristic approach for solving the CVRP based on simulated annealing. The algorithm uses a combination of random and deterministic operators that are based on problem knowledge information. Experimental results are presented and favorable comparisons are reported.