2015 VeRoLog Solver Challenge winner named

The winner of the Vehicle Routing and Logistics Optimisation (VeRoLog) Solver’s Challenge was announced by PTV Group announced at the 2015 VeRoLog conference in Vienna. The competition was initiated by PTV Group and the Association of the European Operational Research Societies (Euro) Working Group on VeRoLog, with the aim of solving a specific transport planning problem derived from practice. Sixteen teams from Europe, India, South America and Africa participated in this year's challenge. First prize was
July 24, 2015 Read time: 2 mins

The winner of the Vehicle Routing and Logistics Optimisation (VeRoLog) Solver’s Challenge was announced by 3264 PTV Group announced at the 2015 VeRoLog conference in Vienna.

The competition was initiated by PTV Group and the Association of the European Operational Research Societies (Euro) Working Group on VeRoLog, with the aim of solving a specific transport planning problem derived from practice.

Sixteen teams from Europe, India, South America and Africa participated in this year's challenge. First prize was won by Professor Dr Martin J. Geiger, University of the Federal Armed Forces in Hamburg, head of the Department of Business Administration. In addition to the Solver trophy, the winner also received a prize of US$1,000.  Second prize winner was Abdelghani Bekrar from France.

The VeRoLog Working Group deals with numerous transport planning and logistics optimisation issues. It consists of 1,000 members worldwide and is a part of Euro (Association of the European Operational Research Societies).

The competition saw 16 teams tackle the challenge of solving a specific route planning problem related to coach tours, Coach Trip with Shuttle Service Problems (CTSSP), suggested by PTV.

The task was to find a solution that allowed passengers to get from different stops to a central point for a coach trip by taking multiple restrictions into account, in a way that was the most efficient for both coach operators and passengers. The most challenging task was to deploy the coaches and a number of different vehicles for shuttle services as efficiently as possible in order to ensure optimum passenger pick-up. This involved complex trip structures which had not yet been modelled as part of standard approaches or which are not yet computable.

According to the Professor Geiger, many logistics planning issues have not yet been solved satisfactorily. New developments, such as the inclusion of existing road networks, a real-time solution for larger instances and the integration of complex, practically applicable restraints, would make it necessary to search for, implement and test new innovative algorithms.

Geiger said: "Our contribution related to the optimisation problem proved to be successful. In addition to new data structures that are completely adjusted to the optimisation issue, we were able to present an approach which also solves major instances satisfactorily."

Related Content

  • January 31, 2012
    Harmonisation of Europe's ITS deployment still unbalanced
    Dean Herenda, Chairman of the EasyWay project, talks about the progress made and the progress still to be made in harmonising ITS deployment across the European Union. "The deployment and use of ITS in road transport across Europe was and still is unbalanced" Although Europe can be proud of being home to some of the world's most advanced ITS solutions, the relative disparities between Member States of the European Union (EU) in terms of the extent and technological sophistication of deployments actually sta
    Read More
  • December 13, 2022
    PTV Group acquires Conundra
    Route planning specialists combine to scale up logistics division as e-commerce grows
    Read More
  • March 31, 2021
    Digital Transformation is the way to comprehensive transportation 
    Transportation worldwide needs to keep up with a variety of challenges: Frederic Giron of Forrester Consulting explains how digital technologies will be the key to making the necessary changes...
    Read More
  • May 18, 2016
    EU aims to turn ITS theory into practice
    Gareth Horton explains how the European Commission’s Transport Research and Innovation Portal can help expedite research and turn theory into practice. Over the next few years Europe’s transport systems face a number of challenges, such as improving urban mobility while at the same time protecting population health and accommodating the accessibility needs of an ageing but active population.
    Read More

Highlighted Content