Two-stage stochastic programming model for routing multiple drones with fuel constraints

Uses of drones and unmanned vehicles (UAVs) in ground or aerial are increasing in both civil and military applications. This paper develops a two-stage stochastic optimization model with a recourse for a multiple drone-routing problem with fuel constraints under uncertainty for the travel between any pair of targets/refueling-sites/depot. We are given a set of n … Read more

Approximation algorithms for the covering-type k-violation linear program

We study the covering-type k-violation linear program where at most $k$ of the constraints can be violated. This problem is formulated as a mixed integer program and known to be strongly NP-hard. In this paper, we present a simple (k+1)-approximation algorithm using a natural LP relaxation. We also show that the integrality gap of the … Read more

Orbitopal fixing for the full (sub-)orbitope and application to the Unit Commitment Problem

It is common knowledge that symmetries arising in integer programs could impair the solution process, in particular when symmetric solutions lead to an excessively large branch and bound (B&B) search tree. Techniques like isomorphic pruning [11], orbital branching [16] and orbitopal fixing [8] have been shown to be essential to solve very symmetric instances from … Read more

A Bucket Graph Based Labeling Algorithm with Application to Vehicle Routing

We consider the Resource Constrained Shortest Path problem arising as a subproblem in state-of-the-art Branch-Cut-and-Price algorithms for vehicle routing problems. We propose a variant of the bi-directional label correcting algorithm in which the labels are stored and extended according to so-called bucket graph. Such organization of labels helps to decrease significantly the number of dominance … Read more

The forwarder planning problem in a two-echelon network

This paper is motivated by the case of a forwarder in dealing with inland transportation planning from a seaport, where inbound containers from the sea are filled with pallets, which have different destinations in the landside. Although this forwarder does not have or control any vehicle, he is required to plan the assignment of containers … Read more

Enriching Solutions to Combinatorial Problems via Solution Engineering

Existing approaches to identify multiple solutions to combinatorial problems in practice are at best limited in their ability to simultaneously incorporate both diversity among generated solutions, as well as problem-specific desires that are apriori unknown, or at least difficult to articulate, for the end-user. We propose a general framework that can generate a set of … Read more

Robust combinatorial optimization with knapsack uncertainty

We study in this paper min max robust combinatorial optimization problems for an uncertainty polytope that is defined by knapsack constraints, either in the space of the optimization variables or in an extended space. We provide exact and approximation algorithms that extend the iterative algorithms proposed by Bertismas and Sim (2003). We also study the … Read more

The Vertex k-cut Problem

Given an undirected graph G = (V, E), a vertex k-cut of G is a vertex subset of V the removing of which disconnects the graph in at least k connected components. Given a graph G and an integer k greater than or equal to two, the vertex k-cut problem consists in finding a vertex … Read more

A Note on Submodular Function Minimization by Chubanov’s LP Algorithm

Recently Dadush, Vegh, and Zambelli (2017) has devised a polynomial submodular function minimization (SFM) algorithm based on their LP algorithm. In the present note we also show a weakly polynomial algorithm for SFM based on the recently developed linear programming feasibility algorithm of Chubanov (2017). Our algorithm is different from Dadush, Vegh, and Zambelli’s but … Read more

Computation of exact bootstrap confidence intervals: complexity and deterministic algorithms

The bootstrap is a nonparametric approach for calculating quantities, such as confidence intervals, directly from data. Since calculating exact bootstrap quantities is believed to be intractable, randomized resampling algorithms are traditionally used. Motivated by the fact that the variability from randomization can lead to inaccurate outputs, we propose a deterministic approach. First, we establish several … Read more