Shiri, D. orcid.org/0000-0003-2884-0047, Akbari, V. and Salman, F.S. (2024) Online algorithms for ambulance routing in disaster response with time-varying victim conditions. OR Spectrum, 46. pp. 785-819. ISSN 0171-6468
Abstract
We present a novel online optimization approach to tackle the ambulance routing problem on a road network, specifically designed to handle uncertainties in travel times, triage levels, required treatment times of victims, and potential changes in victim conditions in post-disaster scenarios. We assume that this information can be learned incrementally online while the ambulances get to the scene. We analyze this problem using the competitive ratio criterion and demonstrate that, when faced with a worst-case instance of this problem, neither deterministic nor randomized online solutions can attain a finite competitive ratio. Subsequently, we present a variety of innovative online heuristics to address this problem which can operate with very low computational running times. We assess the effectiveness of our online solutions by comparing them with each other and with offline solutions derived from complete information. Our analysis involves examining instances from existing literature as well as newly generated large-sized instances. One of our algorithms demonstrates superior performance when compared to the others, achieving experimental competitive ratios that closely approach the optimal ratio of one.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2024 The Authors. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
Keywords: | Disaster relief; Ambulance routing; Online optimization; Competitive ratio |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Social Sciences (Sheffield) > Management School (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 14 Aug 2024 09:40 |
Last Modified: | 14 Aug 2024 09:40 |
Published Version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00291-024-00744-4 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Springer Science and Business Media LLC |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1007/s00291-024-00744-4 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:216001 |