A Discrete Cuckoo Search Algorithm for the Cumulative Capacitated Vehicle Routing Problem

This chapter introduces a discrete cuckoo search (D-CS) algorithm for the cumulative capacitated vehicle routing problem (CCVRP). The D-CS combines the population properties of the cuckoo search algorithm, and its ability to progressively improve the solutions’ quality, with the strong effectiveness of greedy and heuristic algorithms. Unlike the original CS which was designed for solving continuous optimization problems, this implementation adapts the algorithm for solving combinatorial optimization problems, such as the CCVRP. The D-CS implementation is described in detail, and the algorithm is evaluated on well-known CCVRP benchmark instances. The behavior of the D-CS is discussed, in an extensive sensitivity analysis.