A Two-stage Algorithm for Fuzzy Online Order Dispatching Problem

Considering the uncertainty in the real world online food delivery applications, this paper addresses an online order dispatching problem with fuzzy preparation times (FOODP). According to the characteristics of the problem, the FOODP is decomposed into two sub-problems, an order assignment problem and a fuzzy traveling salesman problem with pickup and delivery. To deal with the two sub-problems efficiently, a two-stage algorithm is proposed by reasonably fusing a modified greedy search (mGS) and the fruit fly optimization algorithm (FOA). In the mGS phase, agreement index is employed in the multi-stage decision to search for robust optimal solutions. In the FOA-based search phase, a modified heuristic is used to generate the initial route. To enhance the exploration of the algorithm, an olfactory search is designed by the cooperation of several problem-specific search operators. Moreover, a specific local intensification is employed to further improve the performance of solutions. Numerical tests and statistical analysis demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed algorithm.