An iterated greedy heuristic for the static empty vehicle redistribution problem for the Personal Rapid Transit system

Abstract

Alternative energy for oil as well as advanced technology are used to overcome problems related to public transportation system. In this context, Personal Rapid Transit system (PRT) are among the newest transportation mode that can overcome many of the public transit's problems. Unfortunately, this kind of transportation mode can result a large amount of wasting energy due to the displacement of empty vehicles. In this study, we present and formulate a static problem related to PRT to minimize the total energy consumption. To solve this problem, an adaption of the iterated greedy heuristic (IGH) is represented. Four different versions of the algorithm are proposed as we couple it with the simulated annealing technique. The algorithm is simple and effective as it show how to find good quality results over a short period of time.