We built on the works of Altinkemer and Gavish [5,6], Bertsimas [4]

and Gupta et al. (2012) [1].

Objective: Devise a priori schedule with minimum expected

cumulative cost.

Input:
Demand specied by a random variable i , in the range
(0, Q], is at the customer node i, i (V \ r ). Exact value of
demand at a customer node i is known only after the vehicle visits
the node i.

sCum-VRP: It is a stochastic variation of Cum-VRP.

Objective:
Devise a travel schedule for the vehicle so that all the demands
are met and the cumulative cost is minimized. We allow the
vehicle to ooad cargo at the depot an arbitrary number of times.

Input:
1. A complete, undirected graph G(V, E) with positive length on
each edge e E. The edge lengths satisfy the triangle inequality.
2. The vertices of the graph G(V, E) are numbered from 0 to n.
Vertex 0 is called the depot.
3. For each i V \ {0}, there is a demand for an object of
positive weight wi.
4. Depot has sucient amount of objects to meet all demands.
5. An empty vehicle is located at the depot, which at any point
of time can carry objects of total weight not exceeding Q.

Cum-VRP:

Kara et al. [7] dened cumulative VRPs where the objective is to

minimize fuel consumption of the vehicle given that fuel consumed
per unit distance is proportional to the total weight of the vehicle.
We redene the problem as follows:

Vehicle Routing Problems (VRPs) are one of the most interesting

and widely studied combinatorial optimization problems. Given a
eet of delivery vehicles at the depot and customers with some
demands, the objective is to nd a schedule for the vehicles in
order to meet the demands of the customers, that minimizes the
total distance travelled (or total time spent) by the vehicles.

Introduction

We describe constant factor approximation algorithms for two

variations of the Cumulative VRPs (Cum-VRPs); vehicles
with unbounded capacity and vehicles with bounded capacity
given by Gaur et al. [1]. We give constant factor approximation
algorithms for stochastic cumulative VRPs (sCum-VRPs) for split
and unsplit demands (stochastic) [2].

We consider the vehicle routing problems (VRPs) where the

cost per unit distance is proportional to the total weight of the
vehicle. Such VRPs arise when our goal is to minimize total
fuel consumption and are known as cumulative VRPs.

Contribution

where
E[i] : expected demand at node i.

Given a solution schedule S for sCum-VRP , the

expected cumulative cost can be calculated as:

sCum-VRP:

where
a : cost of moving the empty vehicle per unit distance,
b : cost of moving the unit weight good per unit
distance,
diS : distance for which the vehicle carries weight w i
|Ci| : length of the cycle Ci.

Given a solution schedule S for Cum-VRP , the

cumulative cost is:

Cum-VRP:

1. Each vertex i V\{0} belongs to exactly one cycle.

2. The total weight of objects delivered in each cycle
Cj, 1 j k is at most Q.

A feasible solution S to Cum-VRP consists of a set of

k|V\{0}| directed cycles C1 , . . , Ck containing the
depot such that:

Cumulative Cost

Unsplit-sCum-VRPs: The demand at a customer

node must be satised in a single visit.

Split-sCum-VRPs: The demand at a customer node

can be satised in multiple visits.

Stochastic (sCum-VRPs):

UNEQ-CAP-Cum-VRPs: The objects have unequal

weights, and the vehicle has a capacity Q.

EQ-CAP-Cum-VRPs: All the objects have equal weight,

and the vehicle has a capacity Q.

UNEQ-INF-Cum-VRPs: The objects have unequal

weights, and the vehicle has an innite capacity.

EQ-INF-Cum-VRPs: All the objects have equal weight,

and the vehicle has an innite capacity.

Deterministic (Cum-VRPs):

Problem variations

Split-sCum-VRPs & Unsplit-sCum-VRPs:

Lemma 3. The minimum expected cumulative
cost to meet the demand of all customers is
atleast:

Proof Idea: Take the schedule of UNEQ-INFCum-VRPs from Theorem 3 and break the
cycles of the tour, if required to maintain the
capacity constraint.

UNEQ-CAP-Cum-VRPs:
Theorem 4: There exists a solution schedule
for UNEQ-CAP-Cum-VRPs problem with total
cumulative cost at most:

Proof Idea: Construct a new graph from the

given graph, having unit size weight on each
node. Construct a solution schedule for
EQ-INF-Cum-VRPs. Finally, short-circuit the unit
weight nodes from the same weight set.

UNEQ-INF-Cum-VRPs:
Theorem 3. There exists a solution schedule
for UNEQ-INF-Cum-VRPs problem with total
cumulative cost at most:

Theorem 2. There exists a factorapproximation schedule for UNEQ-INF-Cum-VRPs.

Proof Idea: Take the solution schedule for EQ-INFCum-VRPs from Theorem 1. Calculate Q iterated
optimal partition for each cycle which contains more
than Q nodes.

Lemma 2. (Lower bound) Cost of Optimal cost

schedule for EQ-CAP-Cum-VRPs is at least:

EQ-CAP-Cum-VRPs:

Theorem 1. There exists a factor- 3 approximation

approximation schedule for EQ-INF-Cum-VRPs.
Proof Idea: Take the 3/2 factor TSP tour on the
problem. Calculate the c=a/b iterated optimal
partition for the tour.

where CTSP is the cost of optimal TSP tour, and is the

average distance of customer nodes from depot.

Lemma 1. (Lower bound) Cost of Optimal cost

schedule for EQ-INF-Cum-VRPs is at least:

EQ-INF-Cum-VRPs:

Results

Rishi Ranjan Singh

Department of Computer Science and Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology Ropar

Rishi Ranjan Singh

Department of CSE
R.N. 120, IIT Ropar,
Nangal Road Rupnagar Punjab
rishirs@iitprp.ac.in (+91 8591828584)

Contact

[7] I. Kara, B. Y. Kara, and M. K. Yetis, Cumulative Vehicle Routing Problems, Vehicle
Routing Problem, Edited by Caric, T., and Gold, H., I-Tech Education and Publishing
KG, Vienna, Austria, 2008, pp. 8598.

[6] K. Altinkemer and B. Gavish, Techincal Note: Heuristics for Delivery Problems
with Constant Error Guarantees, Transportation Science, 24 (4), 294297, 1990.

[5] K. Altinkemer and B. Gavish, Heuristics for unequal weight delivery problems
with a xed error guarantee, Operations Research Letters 6(4), 149158, Sep 1987.

[4] D. J. Bertsimas, A Vehicle Routing Problem with Stochastic Demand. Operations

Research, vol. 40, no. 3, 574-585, May 1992.

[3] D. R. Gaur, A. Mudgal, R. R. Singh, Approximation Algorithms for Stochastic

Cumulative Vehicle Routing Problems, presented at the 55th Annual Conference of
the Canadian Operational Research Society (CORS 2013) Canada.

[2] D. R. Gaur, A. Mudgal, R. R. Singh, Routing vehicles to minimize fuel

consumption, Operations Research Letters, vol. 41, Issue 6, Nov 2013, 576-580.

[1] A. Gupta, V. Nagarajan, R. Ravi, Technical NoteApproximation Algorithms for

VRP with Stochastic Demands, Oper. Res., vol. 60, no. 1, 123127, Jan 2012.

References

The approximability of cumulative VRPs where

the number of ooading allowed is given as
input, remains an open question.

We considered a simplied model for fuel

consumption. We present the proof of existence
of constant factor schedules for dierent deterministic and stochastic variations of the problem.

Conclusion

Figure 1. First, partition (Outer Partition) the optimal TSP tour into subtours, delivering at most c
units of weight. Then partition (Inner Partition) each cycle (which is delivering more than Q
units of weight) into sub-cycles, delivering atmost Q units of weight.

Theorem 6. There exists a randomized approximation algorithm producing (4 + 2)-factor

a priori schedule for Unsplit-sCum-VRPs.
Proof Idea: Similar schedule mentioned in
the proof of Theorem 5 except ensure unsplit
delivery.

Theorem 5. There exists a randomized approximation algorithm producing (2 + 2)-factor

a priori schedule for Split-sCum-VRPs.
Proof Idea: See Figure 1.

Approximation Algorithms for Comulative Vehicle Routing Problems