FoodDispatch: Exact Optimization Methods for Food Delivery Services
Project Leader: Prof. Dr. Jörg Rambau and Prof. Dr. Christian Fikar
Contact: Prof. Dr. Jörg Rambau
Project start: 2023/01/01
Project team:
- Prof. Dr. Christian Fikar
- Prof. Dr. Jörg Rambau
- Andreas Putschky
- Toni Tröger
Project description:
APPLICATION BACKGROUND
(Graphics by Christian Fikar)
Vehicle dispatching for food services has to take into account special constraints and objectives. For example, it is important for food how long it has been sitting in the storage already and for how long it is transported on its way to the customer. Christian Fikar and co-authors have conducted a study about the optimization potential in that area. The optimization methods used are mainly from the area of meta-heuristics that cannot yield dual bounds on what could possibly be achieved by optimization. The goal of this project is to employ exact methods in order to obtain such bounds.
CONTRIBUTION TO THE MISSION OF MODUS
Technically, this project adds to the knowledge in exact methods for Integer Linear Programming in special applications. We assume that dynamic column generation with certain special pricing techniques might be successful. This is currently being investigated in a Master's thesis in mathematics, co-advised by Christian Fikar and Jörg Rambau.
RESULTS
So far, two contributing topics for Masters' theses have been assigned to students.