• A MATHEMATICAL MODEL FOR ARC ROUTING PROBLEM – AN EMPIRICAL STUDY

Abstract

The objective of this study is to construct an efficient master route – over an extended planning horizon (more than one day). Previously, a deterministic arc-routing problem (DARP) model is used to solve the problem. However, this approach ignores the uncertainty in the street segment presence probability—the probability that a street segment requires (i.e., there is a demand for) a visit on a particular day. We have considered a new model, namely, the probabilistic arc-routing problem (PARP) model which deals with the street segment presence probabilities. PARP attempts to minimize the expected length of the master route. It assumes that the street segment presence probabilities are independent. Our computational results show that PARP may produce more efficient master routes than DARP by taking demand uncertainty into account.