TY - GEN A1 - Borndörfer, Ralf A1 - Grötschel, Martin A1 - Löbel, Andreas T1 - Alcuin's Transportation Problems and Integer Programming N2 - The need to solve {\it transportation problems\/} was and still is one of the driving forces behind the development of the mathematical disciplines of graph theory, optimization, and operations research. Transportation problems seem to occur for the first time in the literature in the form of the four ''River Crossing Problems'' in the book Propositiones ad acuendos iuvenes. The {\it Propositiones\/} ---the oldest collection of mathematical problems written in Latin--- date back to the $8$th century A.D. and are attributed to Alcuin of York, one of the leading scholars of his time, a royal advisor to Charlemagne at his Frankish court. Alcuin's river crossing problems had no impact on the development of mathematics. However, they already display all the characteristics of today's large-scale real transportation problems. From our point of view, they could have been the starting point of combinatorics, optimization, and operations research. We show the potential of Alcuin's problems in this respect by investigating his problem~18 about a wolf, a goat and a bunch of cabbages with current mathematical methods. This way, we also provide the reader with a leisurely introduction into the modern theory of integer programming. T3 - ZIB-Report - SC-95-27 Y1 - 1995 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-1932 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Borndörfer, Ralf A1 - Grötschel, Martin A1 - Klostermeier, Fridolin A1 - Küttner, Christian T1 - Telebus Berlin: Vehicle Scheduling in a Dial-a-Ride System N2 - {\em Telebus\/} is Berlin's dial-a-ride system for handicapped people that cannot use the public transportation system. The service is provided by a fleet of about 100 mini-busses and includes aid to get in and out of the vehicle. Telebus has between 1,000 and 1,500 transportation requests per day. The problem arises to schedule these requests into the vehicles such that punctual service is provided while operation costs should be minimum. Additional constraints include pre-rented vehicles, fixed bus driver shift lengths, obligatory breaks, and different vehicle capacities. We use a {\em set partitioning\/} approach for the solution of the bus scheduling problem that consists of two steps. The first {\em clustering\/} step identifies segments of possible bus tours (``orders'') such that more than one person is transported at a time; the aim in this step is to reduce the size of the problem and to make use of larger vehicle capacities. The problem to select a set of orders such that the traveling distance of the vehicles within the orders is minimal is a set partitioning problem that we can solve to optimality. In the second step the selected orders are {\em chained\/} to yield possible bus tours respecting all side constraints. The problem to select a set of such bus tours such that each order is serviced once and the total traveling distance of the vehicles is minimum is again a set partitioning problem that we solve approximately. We have developed a computer system for the solution of the bus scheduling problem that includes a branch-and-cut algorithm for the solution of the set partitioning problems. A version of this system is in operation at Telebus since July 1995. Its use made it possible that Telebus can service today about 30\% more requests per day for the same amount of money than before. T3 - ZIB-Report - SC-97-23 Y1 - 1997 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-2925 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Borndörfer, Ralf A1 - Grötschel, Martin A1 - Klostermeier, Fridolin A1 - Küttner, Christian T1 - Optimierung des Berliner Behindertenfahrdienstes N2 - In diesem Artikel geben wir einen Überblick über das Telebus-Projekt am Konrad-Zuse-Zentrum, Berlin, durch das der Behindertenfahrdienst in Berlin reorganisiert und optimiert wurde. Wir berichten kurz über die mathematischen Probleme und, etwas ausführlicher, über die nicht-mathematischen Schwierigkeiten, die bei der Durchführung dieses Projektes auftraten. T3 - ZIB-Report - SC-97-10 Y1 - 1997 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-2799 ER -