We study vehicle routing problems with constraints on the distance traveled by each vehicle or on the number of vehicles.
The objective is to minimize the total distance traveled by vehicles. We design constant differential approximation algorithms
for some of these problems. In particular we obtain differential bounds:
$
\frac{1}
{2}
$
\frac{1}
{2}
for M
etric 3VRP,
$
\frac{3}
{5}
$
\frac{3}
{5}
for M
etric 4VRP,
$
\frac{2}
{3}
$
\frac{2}
{3}
for M
etric
kVRP with
k ≥ 5,
$
\frac{1}
{2}
$
\frac{1}
{2}
for the nonmetric case for any
k ≥ 3, and 1/3 for C
onstrained VRP. We prove also that M
in-S
um E
kTSP is
$
\frac{2}
{3}
$
\frac{2}
{3}
differential approximable and has no differential approximation scheme, unless
P =
NP.
Keywords differential ratio - approximation algorithm - VRP - TSP