A GENETIC ALGORITHM FOR PUBLIC TRANSPORT DRIVER SCHEDULING

The problem of constructing daily shifts for public transport (general ly bus) drivers is explained, and some of the currently available comp uter based solution methods are introduced. The need for improved meth ods is set out, and one of the more widely applied current methods is outlined in sufficient detail to show where new approaches may profita bly be introduced. A feasibility study is described in which a simple genetic algorithm has been developed in order to examine the suitabili ty of such an approach. This has required the development of a new cro ssover operator. Such an algorithm could ultimately replace part of th e presented existing method, making it more efficient in terms of both of quality of result and of time taken to produce a good schedule. Th e simple algorithm has been shown to produce comparable results to the existing method on a test problem. The results encourage further inve stigation, but some complexities which can exist in real problems requ ire further study. The results of the present experiments are presente d, and the further complexities are discussed in the context of the ge netic approach.