A Novel Discrete Whale Optimization Algorithm for Solving the Capacitated Vehicle Routing Problem

Cooperation between vehicles in selecting the optimal set of routes plays a very important role in enhancing the economic advantages of logistical operations. This is the main objective of the Capacitated Vehicle Routing Problem. It is defined as determining the optimal set of routes for a fleet of vehicles taking into consideration the capacity of each vehicle. Vehicle Routing Problem is considered a combinatorial Non-deterministic Polynomial hard Optimization Problem, making it difficult to be solved directly when the problem size is large. Hence, metaheuristic optimization techniques were used to solve the problem. In this paper a recent continuous natural inspired meta-heuristic technique, which is Whale Optimization Algorithm is discretized introducing the Discrete Whale Optimization Algorithm and used to solve the Capacitated Vehicle Routing Problem. Simulations on 15 different benchmark problems were conducted and results were compared with the best known solutions. Results show that Discrete Whale Optimization Algorithm is able to determine the optimal or near to optimal solution.