The bee colony-inspired algorithm (BCiA): a two-stage approach for solving the vehicle routing problem with time windows

Abstract

The paper presents a new optimization algorithm, which adapts the behavior of honey bees during their search for nectar. In addition to the established ant algorithms, bee-inspired algorithms represent a relatively young form of solution procedures, whose applicability to the solution of complex optimization problems has already been shown. The herein presented two-stage approach belongs to the class of metaheuristics to control a construction heuristic and has been applied successfully to the NP-hard Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Windows (VRPTW). Within the paper, evaluation results are presented, which compare the developed algorithm to some of the most successful procedures for the solution of benchmark problems. The pursued approach gives the best results so far for a metaheuristic to control a construction heuristic.