Efficient optimization methods for extended flow path design

Determination of the direction of each segment of a network and the choice and the paths that will be used by vehicles in production units is called flow path design problem. Roads organization directly influences the performance of the system. That is why this problem is one of the most important issues in designing an AGV (automated guided vehicles) system. Efficient optimization methods based on iterative local search and hybridized ant colony optimization are developed in order to solve a flow path design problem for a conventional unidirectional network and some extensions as different types of vehicles, some segments forbidden and construction costs. We are in interest with the case of minimizing the total travel distance considering both loaded and empty travels. In order to ensure the efficiency of the proposed optimization methods, computational experiments are carried out based on literature example.