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- ArticleAçık Erişim2025A Reinforcement Learning-Based Solution for the Capacitated Electric Vehicle Routing Problem from the Last-Mile Delivery Perspective
Aslan Yıldız, Özge; Sarıçiçek, İnci; Yazıcı, Ahmet
The growth of the urban population and the increase in e-commerce activities have resulted in challenges for last-mile delivery. On the other hand, electric vehicles (EVs) have been introduced to last-mile delivery as an alternative to fossil fuel vehicles. Electric vehicles (EVs) not only play a pivotal role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution but also contribute significantly to the development of more energy-efficient and environmentally sustainable urban transportation systems. Within these dynamics, the Electric Vehicle Routing Problem (EVRP) has begun to replace the Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP) in last-mile delivery. While classic vehicle routing ignores fueling, both the location of charging stations and charging time should be included in the Electric Vehicle Routing Problem due to the long recharging time. This study addresses the Capacitated EVRP (CEVRP) with a novel Q-learning algorithm. Q-learning is a model-free reinforcement learning algorithm designed to maximize an agent’s cumulative reward over time by selecting optimal actions. Additionally, a new dataset is also published for the EVRP considering field constraints. For the design of the dataset, real geographical positions have been used, located in the province of Eskisehir, Türkiye. It also includes environmental information, such as streets, intersections, and traffic density, unlike classical EVRP datasets. Optimal solutions are obtained for each instance of the EVRP by using the mathematical model. The results of the proposed Q-learning algorithm are compared with the optimal solutions of the presented dataset. Test results show that the proposed algorithm provides remarkable advantages in obtaining routes in a shorter time for EVs.
RDL Kalıcı Kaydıİncele - ArticleAçık Erişim2025A transformer-based deep reinforcement learning for the Dial-a-Ride problem
Aslan Yıldız, Özge; Sarıçiçek, İnci; Yazıcı, Ahmet
Dial-a-Ride problem (DARP) is a specialized variant of the vehicle routing problem that focuses on designing optimal routes for users who specify pick-up and delivery requests between origins and destinations. This problem involves determining the most effective and efficient routes using limited vehicles and resources to offer responsive door-to-door transportation services for users with specific needs. Logistics service providers require systems that can deliver optimal solutions to these combinatorial problems within a reasonable time. Recently, there has been a significant increase in the use of artificial intelligence optimization algorithms such as meta-heuristics or learning-based approaches to solve such problems. Among the learning-based approaches, reinforcement learning has gained prominence for routing and scheduling tasks, owing to its ability to adaptively learn from complex state spaces and dynamically changing environments. In this study, a novel transformer-based deep reinforcement learning method is proposed to solve the Dial and Ride problem for a single service vehicle. In the proposed model, we adopt a modified transformer architecture instead of employing traditional linear layers, we integrate convolutional layers. To validate our approach, we conduct comprehensive experiments comparing our method against four well-known metaheuristic algorithms and a Deep Q-Network algorithm. The results indicate that proposed approach outperforms these techniques in terms of shorter total travel distances. Additionally, the proposed method is tested on a real-world scenario generated in the Buyukdere neighborhood of Eskisehir. The results demonstrate that the proposed method makes it possible to solve the problem within a reasonable time. This study confirms that the proposed deep reinforcement learning method can effectively address the Dial-a-Ride Problems.
RDL Kalıcı Kaydıİncele