Int J Performability Eng ›› 2021, Vol. 17 ›› Issue (10): 848-857.

Neutrality of Vehicle Routing Problem

Anita Agárdi*, László Kovács, and Tamás Bányai

1. Institue of Informatics, University of Miskolc, Miskolc-Egyetemváros, 3515, Hungary
• Submitted on  ;  Revised on  ; Accepted on
• About author:Anita Agárdi is an assistant lecturer of the University of Miskolc. Her research interests include optimization algorithms and logistics.
László Kovács is a professor of the University of Miskolc. His research interests include data mining, ontology and optimization.
Tamás Bányai is an associate professor of the University of Miskolc. His research interests include logistics and supply chain management.

Abstract: Vehicle Routing is a highly investigated problem in the field of logistics, informatics, management, and engineering. Several Vehicle Routing Problem variants have appeared since the first paper was published in 1959 by Dantzig and Ramster. In this paper, the neutrality analysis of a complex Vehicle Routing Problem is presented. Neutrality analysis is a special method in the general fitness landscape analysis. The fitness landscape analysis is aimed at the examination of the complexity analysis in regard to the objective function of the optimization problem including the efficiency of the representation space and the operators. In the neutrality analysis, we select the neighbors of the solutions that are closest to them. In this paper, we present the analysis of four neighborhood operators: the 2-opt, partially matched crossover, order crossover and the cycle crossover. Based on the performed numerical analysis, the 2-opt and partially matched crossover methods dominate the other operators.