Optimization of Open Vehicle Route to Reduce Fuel Consumption Based on Genetic Algorithm

In the classical version of Vehicle Routing Problems, the vehicles are required to return to the depot after completing service. In open Vehicle Routing Problems, however, the vehicles need not do so. Just like Vehicle Routing Problems, almost all the research papers of open Vehicle Routing Problems focus on minimizing the sum of travel distance. However, vehicle managers are also interested in vehicle routing schedules that minimize fuel consumption. This paper presents a new open vehicle routing problem based on reducing fuel consumption. That is, the optimization objective of the open vehicle routing problem is to minimize the fuel consumption. Then the paper formulates a mathematical model for this problem and develops a genetic algorithm to solve this NP-hard problem. A numerical example is used to demonstrate the operation validation of our genetic algorithm, and to compare the different routing schedules of the open and closed versions of the same problem.