Application of Ant Colony Optimization for the Shortest Path Problem of Waste Collection Process

Abstract

The search for the shortest path of the waste collection process is an interesting topic that can be applied to various cases, from a very practical basic problem to a complex automation system development. In a dense settlement, the waste collection system can be a challenging process, especially to determine the most optimized path. The obstacles can be circling streets, impassable roads, and dead-end roads. A wrong choice of method can result in wasteful consumption of energy. A possible method to solve the problem is the traveling salesman problem using ant colony search optimization, considering its relatively fast optimization process. Therefore, this paper proposes an application of ant colony and traveling salesperson problem in determining the shortest path of the waste collection process. The case study for the optimization algorithm application is the path UGM Sekip Lecturer Housing is considering. Firstly, the data was collected by measuring the distance between points. Then, the paths were modeled and then compared with the actual route used by waste transport vehicles. The last step is implementing the ant colony optimization and traveling salesman problem by determining the cost function and the parameters. The optimization process was conducted several times, considering the random generator within the algorithm. The simulation results show the probable shortest path with a value of about 752 meters so that the use of fossil fuels in waste transport vehicles can be more efficient. The results show that the algorithm can automatically recommend the minimized path length to collect waste.

A comparative study utilizing hybridized ant colony optimization algorithms for solving dynamic capacity of vehicle routing problems in waste collection system

“…Another study employed two local searches involving hill climbing and tabu search to improve the features of the initial solution in terms of minimizing the total routing time, which was assigned for the Sectoring-Arc Routing Problem (SARP) in residential waste collection [22]. Additionally, Ismail et al [24] proposed a basic ACO algorithm to solve the travel salesman problem to minimize the route distance in a single route. This study has no evaluation to ensure the performance of the proposed methods.…”