promptingcompany Routing Formulation
Domain concepts for vehicle routing. No API or interface details here.
What is routing
- TSP: Single vehicle, visit all locations once (e.g. shortest tour).
- VRP: Multiple vehicles, capacity and/or time limits; assign orders to vehicles and sequence stops.
- PDP: Pickup and delivery pairs; pickup must be visited before the corresponding delivery.
Required questions (problem and data)
Ask these if not already clear:
- Problem type — TSP, VRP, or PDP?
- Locations — How many? Depot(s)? Cost or distance between pairs (matrix or derived)?
- Orders / tasks — Which locations must be visited? Demand or service per stop?
- Fleet — Number of vehicles, capacity per vehicle (and per dimension if multiple), start/end locations?
- Constraints — Time windows (earliest/latest arrival), service times, precedence (order A before B)?
Typical data
- Cost or distance matrix (or travel-time matrix).
- Order locations and, for VRP, demand per order.
- Vehicle capacities and optional time windows for vehicles and orders.