Abstract: |
A recently-developed nature-inspired algorithm, Harmony Search, mimicking music improvisation, is introduced and applied to transportation problem (school bus routing), and compared with popular evolutionary algorithm (genetic algorithm). The Harmony Search is conceptualized using the musical process of searching for a perfect state of harmony. This algorithm was applied to a test network consisting of one bus depot, one school and ten bus stops with demand by commuting students. This school bus routing example is a multi-objective problem to minimize the number of operating buses and also the travel time of all buses, with bus capacity and time window constraints that are considered as penalty costs. Harmony Search could find good solution within the reasonable time with other advantages such as no derivative requirement and no initial value assumption. The presented routing model is expected to be applied to large-scale real networks in the future. |
