BluePrint: Vehicle Routing

Introduction

Vehicle Routing tries to determine possible (optimal) routes for the transportation of resources from warehouses to facilities.

Problem class definitions:

• ​http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_routing_problem
• ​http://neo.lcc.uma.es/vrp/vehicle-routing-problem

Stakeholders

Users

• Supplier (Warehouse) (includes Warehouse Manager, Fleet Manager, Finance Officer)
• Shelter (includes Volunteers at Shelter)
• Transport Staffers (Driver)

Who are affected?

• Sahana Developers - Few of the models, should be tweaked
• Warehouse - Extra information to be provided about capacity of vehicles
• Transport Staffers - Additional communication about routes to be taken
• Volunteers at Shelter - Additional data, about arrival time(s) of resources

User Stories

• Supplier can determine which items will be delivered by which vehicle (in order to load the vehicles accordingly)
• Supplier can determine a possible (efficient) route for each vehicle to deliver the requested items
• Supplier can determine the costs/time for the delivery
• Requester can be given an estimated time of arrival of the requested items
• Driver receives the route for the delivery

Requirements

<Group requirements in subsections, e.g. _{etc.> <​http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Requirements_analysis requirements> <Identify different types of requirements:>}

Functional

Non-functional

​http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-functional_requirements

Interoperability

Standards

System Constraints

Design

<Where relevant include alternative design options>

Data Model

(e.g. EER or class diagrams)

Workflows

1. Request for resources, has come into the database (some generic request, by anyone)
2. Warehouse manager, gets the details of the shelters and resources to supply
3. Fleet Manager, supplies to the warehouse, with vehicles
4. VRP Module is run upon
5. This gives the following output
   • Route for each vehicle
   • Cost per vehicle
   • Resources in each vehicle
   • Time to reach shelter, by each Vehicle
6. Cost per vehicle, is given to Finance Officer, for approval
7. Route and Cost per vehicle, is given to each Driver
8. Time to reach shelter, by each Vehicle, is given to respective Volunteers
9. Journey begins

Site Map

<for User Interface solutions>

Wireframes

<for User Interface solutions>

Technologies

Current Implementation

<Leave open for a list of existing implementation of this solution in Sahana Eden:> <*a brief description of the implementation (date/time, name, design options chosen)> <*a link to the code> <*list of deployments of the implementation> <*links to case studies> <*short analysis of achievements/problems>

Planned Implementation

Given

• A transportation network
• A single supplier, having a fleet of vehicles of given capacities, and a warehouse of goods
• A set of demands (who, what, when)

Assumptions

• All routes in the transportation network, are accessible
• Sufficient vehicles
• Sufficient drivers
• Sufficient fuel
• Vehicles transport all the fuel they need for transport
• Minimizing total distance also minimizes delivery time

Goal

• Satisfy all demands within their time windows
• Minimize total distance

Future Extensions

• Multiple Warehouses
• Minimize fuel consumption
• Maximize the number of demands satisfied
• Handle routes that suddenly become unavailable
• Re-optimization of plan if routes become available again, without sending vehicles home
• Handle different types of routes
• Handle case of too few vehicles to transport all in one shot
• Low fuel at start
• Low fuel availability within the network to refuel vehicle
• Handle time for loading/unloading
• Handle breakdowns of vehicles
• New demands coming in over time
• Assignment of drivers to vehicles

Outstanding Questions

<Questions about the features or design that haven't been (and need to be) answered>

References

• BluePrint/GIS/Routing

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BluePrint