Combining linear programming and automated planning to solve intermodal transportation problems Articles uri icon

publication date

  • May 2013

start page

  • 216

end page

  • 226

issue

  • 1

volume

  • 227

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

  • 0377-2217

Electronic International Standard Serial Number (EISSN)

  • 1872-6860

abstract

  • When dealing with transportation problems Operational Research (OR), and related areas as Artificial Intelligence (AI), have focused mostly on uni-modal transport problems. Due to the current existence of bigger international logistics companies, transportation problems are becoming increasingly more complex. One of the complexities arises from the use of intermodal transportation. Intermodal transportation reflects the combination of at least two modes of transport in a single transport chain, without a change of container for the goods. In this paper, a new hybrid approach is described which addresses complex intermodal transport problems. It combines OR techniques with AI search methods in order to obtain good quality solutions, by exploiting the benefits of both kinds of techniques. The solution has been applied to a real world problem from one of the largest Spanish companies using intermodal transportation, Acciona Transmediterranea Cargo.