Ph.D XXXVII

Supervisor: Luca Di Gaspero 

Mail: taverna.francesco@spes.uniud.it

Research Project

Models and algorithms for the intelligent management of waste collection through fleets of electric vehicles

Due to the increase in waste production and its impact both from an economic and ecological point of view, the efficiency in the collection of municipal and special waste has become a key aspect in the transition toward the so-called smart green cities. The usage of electric fleets can reduce the ecological impact of collection operations, but it also poses new challenges in modeling and solving the optimization problems arising from their efficient operations with the aim of generating intelligent collection plans.

The vehicle routing problem is a well-known problem in the optimization framework, but its variant with electric vehicles brings two new challenges the driving range and long recharge times. In the beginning, the research project will focus on the definition of a model and its solution through exact methods. Then it will focus on meta-heuristic methods with the aim to create an efficient and fast solver that can also be employed in commercial contests.