Optimization of periodic unitary online schedule of transport tasks of highway road trains

The paper is devoted to the problem of optimization of transport tasks’ execution schedule. The exploitation of a group of interdependent highway road trains is considered. The task differs from the known ones by limitations of the duration of a cycle within which a maximum number of goods transportation orders must be fulfilled. There are also limited intervals of time when loading and unloading of vehicles is permitted at appropriate points of a transport network. The solution of the problem consists in distributing a given number of road trains between orders, finding the shortest path for each of them, and determining the time of their departure and arrival provided the absence of idle runs and with minimal time delays of the process. It is shown that a maximum numer of completed tasks are proportional to the duration of the cycle up to a certain limit only. The optimization is carried out for two options: in the absence and presence of restrictions on repeatability of freight flows from one point. The used algorithm guarantees an exact solution for an acceptable period of time for a small-dimensional task.