A Domain-Specific Language For Routing Problems

Hoffmann, Benjamin; Hoffman, Benjamin; Guckert, Michael; Farrenkopf, Thomas; Chalmers, Kevin; Urquhart, Neil

Abstract

Vehicle Routing Problems (VRPs) are commonly used as benchmark optimisation problems and they also have many applications in industry. Using agent-based approaches to solve VRPs allows the analysis of dynamic VRP instances that incorporate congestion effects. By using a domain-specific language as part of a model-driven approach, routing problems can be modelled in an abstract form that does not contain implementation and other technical details. With such a tool domain experts can concentrate on the actual modelling task without being distracted by low-level intricacies. We present the DSL Athos in which computational and platform independent routing problems can be defined. The DSL offers an efficient way to model problems with seamless integration of established optimisation methods. Generators create executable code for several agent based platforms. Proof of concept is given by applying the tools to the Oliver 30 TSP and an instance of a dynamic TSP.

Citation

Hoffmann, B., Hoffman, B., Guckert, M., Farrenkopf, T., Chalmers, K., & Urquhart, N. (2018). A Domain-Specific Language For Routing Problems. In L. Nolle, A. Burger, C. Tholen, J. Werner, & J. Wellhausen (Eds.), Proceedings of the 32nd EUROPEAN CONFERENCE ON MODELLING AND SIMULATION. https://doi.org/10.7148/2018-0262

• Conference Name: 32nd Conference on Modelling and Simulation
• Start Date: May 22, 2018
• End Date: May 25, 2018
• Acceptance Date: Mar 9, 2018
• Online Publication Date: Jul 12, 2018
• Publication Date: May 25, 2018
• Deposit Date: Apr 10, 2018
• Publicly Available Date: Apr 11, 2018
• Publisher: European Council for Modelling and Simulation
• Series Title: Conference Proceedings
• Series ISSN: 2522-2414
• Book Title: Proceedings of the 32nd EUROPEAN CONFERENCE ON MODELLING AND SIMULATION
• ISBN: 9780993244063
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.7148/2018-0262
• Public URL: http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/Output/1148980