In this example, you’ll discover how mathematical optimization can be leveraged to solve a capacitated vehicle routing problem: the Milk Collection Problem. With only one tanker truck with limited capacity, you will need to determine the best possible route for the tanker to take to collect milk every day from a set of farms. It’s a complicated problem to solve, but mathematical optimization will help show you the way!
This model is example 23 from the fifth edition of Model Building in Mathematical Programming by H. Paul Williams on pages 278-281 and 336-337.
This modeling example is at the advanced level, where we assume that you know Python and the Gurobi Python API and you have advanced knowledge of building mathematical optimization models. Typically, the objective function and/or constraints of these examples are complex or require advanced features of the Gurobi Python API.
Click on the button below to access the example in Google Colab, which is a free, online Jupyter Notebook environment that allows you to write and execute Python code through your browser.
Check out the Colab Getting Started Guide for full details on how to use Colab Notebooks as well as create your own.
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