Abstract—The Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP) is a NP-hard and Combinatorial optimization problem. Combinatorial optimization problem can be viewed as searching for best element in a set of discrete items, which can be solved using search algorithm or meta heuristic. In this work, VRP is solved using population based search algorithm, Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) with crossover and mutation operators. In this paper, the PSO for VRP is considered from two aspects: the hybrid PSO algorithm and particle encoding method. The technical details required for this application are discussed. The computational result shows that the results of hybrid PSO for VRP are competitive.

Index Terms—Genetic operators, Hybrid Strategy, Particle swarm optimization, Particle encoding, Vehicle Routing Problem.

Cite: S. Geetha, G. Poonthalir, and P. T. Vanathi, "A Hybrid Particle Swarm Optimization with Genetic Operators for Vehicle Routing Problem," Journal of Advances in Information Technology, Vol. 1, No. 4, pp. 181-188, November, 2010.doi:10.4304/jait.1.4.181-188