Generalized formulation for trajectory optimization in patrolling problems

In this paper, a general formulation is presented for trajectory optimization in patrolling problems. It is assumed that the starting depots are not prespecified. This assumption distinguishes the present work from the existing literature. A number of viewpoints are assigned to be visited in a certain sequence to minimize the total travel distance. The problem turns out to be a variant of the well-known Traveling Salesmen Problem (TSP), namely the Multidepot multiple Traveling Salesmen Problem (MmTSP). A comparison between the commonly-used pre-specified starting multidepot approach and the proposed formulation is performed and the efficacy of the results is presented through simulations.