A Variable Neighborhood Search Approach for the Interdependent Lock Scheduling Problem

We investigate a so far not examined problem called the In- terdependent Lock Scheduling Problem. A Variable Neighborhood Search approach is proposed for nding lock schedules along the Austrian part of the Danube River in order to minimize the overall ship travel times. In computational experiments the performance of our approach is assessed and compared to real-world ship trajectories. Notable improvements can be achieved. In addition, the number of (empty) lockages can be signi cantly reduced when taking them into account during optimization without loosing too much of quality in travel time optimization.