Public sector vehicle routing : the Chinese postman problem.

This research is concerned with vehicle routing problems in the public sector. Specifically, the problems of routing vehicles to service every street in a complex highway network are analyzed. Chapter I presents a general overview of what these problems are, and discusses the general theoretical problem known in the literature as the Chinese postman problem. Chapter II analyzes the specific problems of trash collection and snow plowing, and demonstrates how these problems are in fact variations of the Chinese postman problem which require the consideration of additional constraints such as those imposed by limited vehicle capacity. Chapter III gives a brief review of existing algorithms for the Chinese postman problem, while Chapter IV describes some new algorithms proposed by the author, including one which is an attempt at handling the capacity constraint. Finally, Chapter V offers some computational experience on a large scale problem using one of these proposed new algorithms. Results indicate that the algorithm used in Chapter V is a feasible way to solve certain vehicle routing problems for large cities, but more research remains to be done in the search for more efficient and more versatile algorithms. THESIS SUPERVISOR: David H. Marks TITLE: Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering