We consider the probabilistic traveling salesman problem (PTSP) in which customer presences are Bernoulli random variables, and the objective is to determine an a priori tour minimizing the expected traveling cost of the a posteriori tour obtained by skipping absent customers after customer presence is revealed. The existing literature has established that, given an a … Read more
We study a variant of the Probabilistic Travelling Salesman Problem arising when retailers crowdsource last-mile deliveries to their own customers, who can refuse or accept in exchange for a reward. A planner must identify which deliveries to offer, knowing that all deliveries need fulfilment, either via crowdsourcing or using the retailer’s own vehicle. We formalise … Read more
The sample average approximation (SAA) method is an approach for solving stochastic optimization problems by using Monte Carlo simulation. In this technique the expected objective function of the stochastic problem is approximated by a sample average estimate derived from a random sample. The resulting sample average approximating problem is then solved by deterministic optimization techniques. … Read more