Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Windows Using Meta-Heuristic Algorithms: A Survey

Meta-Heuristic Algorithms are one of the most widely used optimization algorithms. Vehicle routing problem with time windows (VRPTW) is a famous NP-hard combinatorial optimization problem that plays a key role in logistics systems. In this paper, we review some of the recent advancements in the VRPTW using meta-heuristic techniques. Many variants of the classical Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP) are also presented. An extensive survey of the related research is presented with a stress on the different approaches used to solve this problem. A review of various evolutionary and swarm intelligence based algorithms like Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO), Ant Colony Optimization (ACO), Artificial Bee Colony algorithm (ABC), etc., for solving VRPTW is also presented. Finally, the research gaps inferred after analyzing the previous works are highlighted along with the future prospects in this field of research.