Exploring route-based combinatorial optimization problems
Route-based combinatorial optimization problems set out to solve the most efficient route from point A to a set of destination points. These points are also referred to as nodes using terminology from graph theory. These problems can be simple, where a person or a vehicle departs a starting point and must travel to a set of destination points while visiting each point only once before returning to the origin point, all while minimizing the distance traveled. This is formally known as the Traveling Salesperson Problem (TSP). This problem can easily become more complicated when you add in a set of vehicles or people visiting destinations instead of a single vehicle or person in the TSP problem. This is known as a Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP). To solve this problem, you must find the optimal routes for a set of vehicles to traverse to visit a given set of customers. Additional complexity can be added to this problem class in instances...
