OPTIMAL ROUTE DETERMINATION FOR POSTAL DELIVERY USING ANT COLONY OPTIMIZATION ALGORITHM

A. O. Babatunde; I. D. Oladipo; A. O. Busari; G. B. Balogun; F. A. Taofeek-Ibrahim; M. O. Sheu

A. O. Babatunde Department of Computer Science, University of Ilorin, Ilorin, Nigeria
I. D. Oladipo Department of Computer Science, University of Ilorin, Ilorin, Nigeria
A. O. Busari Department of Computer Science, University of Ilorin, Ilorin, Nigeria
G. B. Balogun Department of Computer Science, University of Ilorin, Ilorin, Nigeria
F. A. Taofeek-Ibrahim Department of Computer Science, Federal Polytechnic Offa
M. O. Sheu Department of Computer Science, Institute of Information and Communication Technology, Kwara State Polytechnic, Ilorin

Keywords: Ant Colony, algorithm, Route, postal delivery, optimization

Abstract

There are a lot of optimization challenges in the world, as we all know. The vehicle routing problem is one of the more complex and high-level problems. Vehicle Routing Problem is a real-life problem in the Postal Delivery System logistics and, if not properly attended to, can lead to wastage of resources that could have been directed towards other things. Several studies have been carried out to tackle this problem using different techniques and algorithms. This study used the Ant Colony Optimization Algorithm along with some powerful APIs to find an optimal route for the delivery of posts to customers in a Postal Delivering System. When Ant Colony Optimization Algorithm is used to solve the vehicle routing problem in transportation systems, each Ant's journey is mere “part” of a feasible solution. To put it in another way, numerous ants' pathways might make up a viable solution. Routes are determined for a delivery vehicle, with the objective of minimizing customer waiting time and operation cost. Experimental results indicate that the solution is optimal and more accurate