Application of a software tool for routing optimisation in the Azemmour area

D. Malamis, M. Loizidou, M. Mountadar, M. Rihani et O. Assobhei

International Conference on Sustainable Solid Waste Management (SSWM -09)

Friday 19 June 2009

Introduction• The municipality Azemmour

– population 40.000

– 30tn of MSW/day,

– 0.75kg of MSW/capita/day

• The collection and transfer of the Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) is a Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP)

• Presentation of a software tool – “Container Collector” -that optimizes the collection and transfer of MSW in the municipality of Azemmour

Importance of VRPs

Produce routes that contribute to the reduction of:

– cost, by offering simultaneously significant

savings in all related expenses (capital and maintenance cost, fuel cost, personnel cost)

– potential environmental impacts (e.g. air emissions from vehicles)

“Container Collector” software

• designed, implemented and deployed under the platform of MS Windows XP

• solving the Vehicle Routing Problem in the case of urban waste container collection

• automatically generates optimum vehicle routes (which vehicles should deliver to which customers and in which order) minimizing simultaneously– the vehicle costs and – the total distance traveled by the vehicles

Constrains are set through equations

• minimization of the vehicle costs and the total distance covered by the vehicles

• each container is serviced by exactly one vehicle

• ensuring the route continuity – means that a vehicle arriving at a customer must also leave this customer

• each vehicle must not service more than its capacity in each route

• maximum route length or duration • each vehicle is used exactly once

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• A snapshot of the application main document window

• Spatial reproduction of application data on an appropriate road network

Azemmour municipality road network

Arrow Tool. Depicts road names.

Zoom in & out Tools. They have a typical GIS zooming in & out tool function

Pan Tool. It has a typical GIS pan tool function

Restore Tool. Restores original map

Basic Application Navigation

The basic application view is navigated through a set of button controls that is given below.

Starting & Ending point of the vehicles route

Presentation of MSW containers in graphical mode on the application screen

MSW containers distribution in Azemmour municipality

69 bins in total at the main road network

Presentation of the basic problem parameters dialog

Solving the Vehicle Routing Problem

Presentation of all routes and containers in graphical mode (total and each one route)

Software Results• 4 trucks for the collection of bins• 4 different routes 1st

route

2nd route

3rd route

4th route

Presentation of each truck route separately – 1st Route and containers involved

Which truck?1st Truck

Which route should the truck follow?

How many bins did the truck collect?20 containersHow much time does the truck need for the collection of the bins?2hr and 24 min

Presentation of each truck route separately – 2nd Route and containers involved

2nd Truck

Which route should the truck take?

18 containers in 1hour and 51min

Presentation of each truck route separately – 3rd Route and containers involved

3rd Truck

Which route should the truck take?

19 containers in 2hrs and 21min

Presentation of each truck route separately – 4th Route and containers involved

Which truck?4th Truck

Which route should the truck take?

12 containers1hr and 26min

Conclusions• Design and implementation of a Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP) software

for the optimization of MSW collection and transfer for the case of Azemmour municipality– Minimizes the total distance traveled,

– Minimizes the total length of tours

– Minimizes costs (wages, fuel consumption etc)

• Possible to determine optimal routes by simply setting the appropriate parameters– the maximum number of containers per truck

– the mean speed of the vehicles/trucks

– the shift period

– the container service time

• Illustrates graphically and in tubular mode the routing information needed– Number of routes and trucks needed

– The route that each trucks should take

– The total containers that each truck should collect and transfer as well as the as associated time

Thank You