【Title】The time-dependent pollution-routing problem

【Speaker】Prof. Tom Van Woensel, Professor, School of Industrial Engineering, Eindhoven University of Technology

【Host】Dr. Lei Zhao

【Time】 November 28, 2013 (Thursday), 14:00 – 15:00

【Location】Room 412, Shun-de Building

【Abstract】The Time-Dependent Pollution-Routing Problem (TDPRP) consists of routing a fleet of vehicles in order to serve a set of customers and determining the speeds on each leg of the routes. The cost function includes emissions and driver costs, taking into account traffic congestion which, at peak periods, significantly restricts vehicle speeds and increases emissions. We describe an integer linear programming formulation of the TDPRP and provide illustrative examples to motivate the problem and give insights about the tradeoffs it involves. We also provide an analytical characterization of the optimal solutions for a single-arc version of the problem, identifying conditions under which it is optimal to wait idly at certain locations in order to avoid congestion and to reduce the cost of emissions. Building on these analytical results we describe a novel departure time and speed optimization algorithm for the cases when the route is fixed. Finally, using benchmark instances, we present results on the computational performance of the proposed formulation and on the speed optimization procedure.

【Brief bio】Tom Van Woensel is Full Professor of Freight Transport and Logistics in the OPAC group (Operations, Planning, Accounting and Control) of the department of Industrial Engineering and Innovation Sciences at the Technische Universiteit Eindhoven in the Netherlands. He also heads the Smart Logistics Lab, a joint effort of around 15 people doing research in transport and logistics.

His research is mainly focused on Freight Transport and Logistics. He published around 50papers in academic journals (including Management Science, Transportation Science, Production and Operations Management, Interfaces, Computers and Operations Research, Transportation Research Part B and D, European Journal of Operational Research, Journal of Mathematical Modeling and Analysis, and International Journal of Production Economics) and several chapters in international books. More information on all publications can also be found on Google Scholar (current h-index is 17). As the lead scientist from the TU/e, he was involved in securing grants coming from the EU, Dinalog, Transumo, NWO, and several companies.

Prof. dr. Van Woensel is also a board member of the European Supply Chain Forum, a collaborative effort with about 30 large multinational companies. He is the account manager for Bausch and Lomb, Kuehne+Nagel and Access Business Group.