Transportation

Optimal Route Planning for Orienteering: Branch-and-Cut with Terrain Cost Surfaces and Fatigue

Categories (Mixed) Integer Linear Programming, Branch and Cut Algorithms, Transportation

We address the problem of optimal route planning for competitive orien- teering on real terrain. A Geographic Information System (GIS) pipeline transforms orienteering map data and digital terrain models into a fully asymmetric cost matrix that captures directional slope costs (via the Minetti metabolic model) and cumulative athlete fatigue. The resulting problem, the Asymmetric Orienteering … Read more

Optimal Batching and In-Building Delivery Routing with Capacitated Residential Parcel Lockers

Categories Production and Logistics, Transportation Tags , , ,

Residential parcel lockers (RPLs), unlike their public counterparts, facilitate secure parcel delivery to occupants of private apartment and condominium buildings in urban areas. In this work, we consider the perspective of a last-mile parcel carrier that has access to an RPL in the lobby of a high-rise residential building. Motivated by growing e-commerce demand, we … Read more

Integrating Power Profile Optimization with Timetabling for Underground Train Networks

Categories (Mixed) Integer Linear Programming, Polyhedra, Transportation Tags , , ,

We study energy-efficient operation of underground train networks by integrating power profile optimization with timetable design in a single mixed-integer optimization framework. The model minimizes traction energy by synchronizing braking and acceleration across trains sharing a power subnetwork to exploit regenerative energy and flexibly allocating running times to promote coasting. Unlike timetable-only approaches with fixed … Read more

Route `Em and Count `Em: A Two-Stage Stochastic Programming Model for Anti-Submarine Operations

Categories (Mixed) Integer Linear Programming, Stochastic Programming, Transportation Tags , , ,

Tracking targets in undersea warfare requires successful detection by an active search asset. Maximizing detection likelihood requires strategic placement and routing of the search assets in the search region over the planning horizon. We develop a two-stage stochastic integer programming model that maximizes the expected total reward for target detections under uncertainty in target motion … Read more

Designing Autonomous Aerial Cable Car Networks for Sustainable Urban Logistics

Categories Network Optimization, Other Topics, Transportation Tags , , , ,

This paper investigates the emerging autonomous aerial cableway technology to reduce the negative impacts of urban freight transportation. We focus on the infrastructure design problem to minimize the road-transportation externalities, taking pricing, investment costs, and the physical footprint into account. The network design problem is formulated as a mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) model that explicitly … Read more

Stochastic Bilevel Optimization for the Network Design of Multimodal Transit Systems with Heterogeneous Rider Preferences under Uncertain Travel Times and Demand

Categories Bilevel Optimization, Stochastic Programming, Transportation

Designing efficient and user-friendly multimodal transit networks is critical for modern urban mobility. We study a novel stochastic multimodal transit network design problem that integrates fixed-route services with on-demand shuttles, explicitly accounting for heterogeneous rider preferences, uncertain travel times, and passenger demand. The hierarchical decision-making process is modeled using a two-stage stochastic bilevel optimization problem, … Read more

Nested Benders Decomposition for Large-Scale Multi-Follower Bilevel Optimization

Categories Bilevel Optimization, Parallel Algorithms, Transportation Tags , , , ,

We propose a scalable nested Benders decomposition (BD) framework for single-leader, multi-follower bilevel optimization problems. The proposed framework is applicable to bilevel optimization problems in which each follower solves a linear program and is particularly well suited for instances involving a large number of followers. By identifying the upper-level decisions as complicating variables, the method … Read more

Objective Domain Reduction for Enhancing Solver Performance on Challenging Integer Programs

Categories Combinatorial Optimization, Integer Programming, Transportation Tags , , , ,

In this study, we explore how the domain of objective function values for challenging integer programs can be reduced and whether such a reduction can improve the solution process. Our work is motivated by binary search, a technique that efficiently narrows a search space by repeatedly halving it through feasibility checks. Building on this idea, … Read more

The Distributionally Robust Cyclic Inventory Routing Problem

Categories Production and Logistics, Supply Chain Management, Transportation Tags , , ,

We study the cyclic inventory routing problem that involves joint decisions on vehicle routing and inventory replenishment on an infinite, cyclic horizon. It considers a single warehouse and a set of geographically dispersed retailers. We model retailer demand as random variables with uncertain distributions belonging to a moment-based ambiguity set. We develop a distributionally robust … Read more

Finite-Sample Optimality and Constraint Satisfaction: Learning-Based Optimal Control in Dynamic Dispatch Networks

Categories Data Science Theory, Production and Logistics, Transportation Tags , ,

Dynamic dispatch networks in logistics and transportation require real-time, constraint-aware decision-making under stochastic demand. This paper bridges mathematical optimization, optimal control theory, and reinforcement learning by establishing non-asymptotic theoretical guarantees for learning-based optimal control in constrained stochastic dispatch systems. We formulate the problem as a constrained Markov decision process, enforce feasibility via a projection-based policy … Read more