An optimization model for container transportation network with ACO approach

The rapid growth of international container handling in recent years has led to an increased utilization of mega-containerships and the rebuild of container network. In this paper, we focus on the optimization of total cost for regional containers transportation network system of seaports, and propose a new reliable intelligent algorithm, named Ant Colony Optimization (ACO). ACO is to solve the nonlinear NP-complete problems, which is greatly inspired from real ants and their food seeking behavior. The paper constructs an optimization model for certain containers transportation network system and simulates the whole process. The results show the improved ACO Algorithm is of a credible and excellent probability accumulation searching method to reduce the integrated cost of container transportation network obviously. The optimization model that we constructed provides a reference model for containers transportation network layout.