The Bees Algorithm for the Vehicle Routing Problem

In this thesis we present a new algorithm for the Vehicle Routing Problem called the Enhanced Bees Algorithm. It is adapted from a fairly recent algorithm, the Bees Algorithm, which was developed for continuous optimisation problems. We show that the results obtained by the Enhanced Bees Algorithm are competitive with the best meta-heuristics available for the Vehicle Routing Problem (within 0.5% of the optimal solution for common benchmark problems). We show that the algorithm has good runtime performance, producing results within 2% of the optimal solution within 60 seconds, making it suitable for use within real world dispatch scenarios.