A fuzzy logic approach to dynamic Dial-A-Ride problem

Different versions of the dynamic Dial-A-Ride problem are found in every day practice; transportation of people in low-density areas, transportation of the handicapped and elderly persons and parcel pick-up and delivery service in urban areas. Carrier, which is providing the transportation service, receives calls for transportation. The problem is to assign every new passenger request to one of the Vehicles and to design a new route and schedule for this vehicle. This assignment must be done in real time. Two approximate reasoning algorithms are developed in this paper. Using the first approximate reasoning algorithm we make the decision about which vehicle will accept the new request. The second developed approximate reasoning algorithm was used to design the new route and schedule for the vehicle chosen to serve the new request. The model developed has been tested on a greater number of different numerical examples. The results obtained are very promising. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.