We’ve been running some experiments with adapting our ODL Live route optimiser to solve ‘vehicle routing with replenishments’ type problems. Here’s a screenshot of our experimental new ‘replenishment routing’ functionality configured for electric vehicle charging. We deliberately made a hard scenario to test ODL Live. We assumed a long-haul scenario where multiple recharges are required per route, we also assumed charging stations are relatively sparse (25 randomly chosen locations).

Looking at the routes we see interesting features. Because there’s not many recharging stations in the top right, recharging stations function as a kind of ‘mini-depot’ where the route swings into the station, charges up, goes out to do a mini-route and then swings back in to do another charge. This is sensible behaviour when there’s few charging stations around. We also see the classic petal-shaped routes which are indicative of efficient delivery routes coming from a central depot.