Heterogeneous-vehicle distribution logistics planning for assembly line station materials with multiple time windows and multiple visits

Aiming at distribution logistics planning in green manufacturing, heterogeneous-vehicle vehicle routing problems are identified for the first time with multiple time windows that meet load constraints, arrival time window constraints, material demand, etc. This problem is expressed by a mathematical model with the characteristics of the vehicle routing problem with split deliveries by order. A hybrid ant colony optimization algorithm based on tabu search is designed to solve the problem. The search time is reduced by a peripheral search strategy and an improved probability transfer rule. Parameter adaptive design is used to avoid premature convergence, and the local search is enhanced through a variety of neighborhood structures. Based on the problem that the time window cannot be violated, the time relaxation rule is designed to update the minimum wait time. The algorithm has the best performance that meets the constraints by comparing with other methods.