route_fieldwork: Route the field work

In fieldopt: Area-Frame and Dual-Frame Survey Design under Real Field Cost

Route the field work

Description

Finds low-cost routes from a depot through the selected units: one route when the limits allow it, several otherwise (one per team or per day). Instances of up to 13 units are solved exactly (dynamic programming over subsets). Larger ones go to a hybrid genetic search (Vidal 2022): a population of giant tours, order crossover, the optimal split of Prins (2004) under the limits, and a local search with granular neighbourhoods (2-opt, Or-opt, relocate, swap, 2-opt*). The gap to a lower bound is reported: the Held-Karp bound for a single tour on a symmetric matrix (usually within a few percent of the optimum), a loose bound otherwise. For a single tour, a branch-and-bound on Held-Karp 1-trees then tries to close the gap within certify seconds; optimal says when the solution is proven optimal (most tours of up to about 100 units are, within a few seconds).

Usage

route_fieldwork(
  matrix,
  units,
  depot,
  max_length = Inf,
  max_stops = Inf,
  service_time = 0,
  demand = 0,
  capacity = Inf,
  iterations = 200,
  time_limit = NULL,
  certify = 1,
  alpha = 0.3,
  seed = 1,
  cost_model = NULL,
  engine = c("fieldopt", "vrpr")
)

Arguments

matrix	A travel_matrix().
units	Names (or indices in the matrix) of the units to visit, or a select_units() sample, whose sampled units are visited.
depot	Name (or index) of the depot.
max_length	Maximum length of a route, depot to depot: travel plus the service time of its units when service_time is given; Inf for none.
max_stops	Maximum units per route; Inf for none.
service_time	Time spent at each unit (interviews, measurements), in the unit of the travel matrix: a single number, or a vector named by unit. It counts towards max_length and is reported in durations.
demand	Load each unit adds to its route (interviews to make, samples to carry): a single number or a vector named by unit.
capacity	Maximum load of a route; Inf for none.
iterations	Offspring of the genetic search (ignored when the instance is solved exactly or when time_limit is given).
time_limit	Seconds of search instead of iterations (NULL for none); the only stopping rule of the "vrpr" engine (default 5 s).
certify	Seconds allowed to the branch-and-bound on Held-Karp 1-trees that tries to prove a single tour optimal (symmetric matrix, no limits forcing several routes); 0 switches it off. It also improves the tour when it finds a better one.
alpha	Greediness of the constructions that seed the population, in ⁠[0, 1]⁠ (0 greedy, 1 random).
seed	Seed of the solver.
cost_model	Optional field_cost_model() to price the solution.
engine	"fieldopt" (the built-in solver) or "vrpr", the PyVRP solver through the vrpr package (in Suggests), with the same inputs and outputs, except that it takes one of max_stops and capacity and gives no lower bound. Both engines charge a cost model's per_route inside the objective (as per_route / per_travel travel units per route), so the number of routes is itself optimised when a cost model is given.

Value

An object of class fieldopt_routes: routes (a tibble with columns route, stop, unit), lengths (travel per route), durations (travel plus service), loads, total, lower_bound, gap, optimal, best_iteration, cost (when a model is given), the inputs and the travel matrix.

References

Vidal, T. (2022). Hybrid genetic search for the CVRP: open-source implementation and SWAP* neighborhood. Computers & Operations Research, 140, 105643. Prins, C. (2004). A simple and effective evolutionary algorithm for the vehicle routing problem. Computers & Operations Research, 31, 1985-2002. Held, M. and Karp, R. M. (1971). The traveling-salesman problem and minimum spanning trees: part II. Mathematical Programming, 1, 6-25.

Examples

set.seed(1)
pts <- data.frame(
  unit = c("depot", paste0("s", 1:12)),
  x = c(0, runif(12, 0, 10)), y = c(0, runif(12, 0, 10))
)
m <- travel_matrix(pts, method = "euclidean")
r <- route_fieldwork(m,
  units = paste0("s", 1:12), depot = "depot", max_stops = 5,
  iterations = 50
)
r

fieldopt documentation built on Oct. 22, 2026, 1:07 a.m.