Vehicle Routing Problems (VRPs) are commonly used as benchmark optimisation problems and they also have many applications in industry. Using agent-based approaches to solve VRPs allows the analysis of dynamic VRP instances that incorporate congestion effects. By using a domain-specific language as part of a model-driven approach, routing problems can be modelled in an abstract form that does not contain implementation and other technical details. With such a tool domain experts can concentrate on the actual modelling task without being distracted by low-level intricacies. We present the DSL Athos in which computational and platform independent routing problems can be defined. The DSL offers an efficient way to model problems with seamless integration of established optimisation methods. Generators create executable code for several agent based platforms. Proof of concept is given by applying the tools to the Oliver 30 TSP and an instance of a dynamic TSP. RELATED WORKThe TSP is an NP-hard benchmark combinatorial optimisation problem. The problem requires a route to be determined for a Proceedings 32nd European Conference on Modelling and Simulation ©ECMS

Domain-specific languages (DSLs) are a popular approach among software engineers who demand for a tailored development interface. A DSL-based approach allows to encapsulate the intricacies of the target platform in transformations that turn DSL models into executable software code. Often, DSLs are even claimed to reduce development complexity to a level that allows them to be successfully applied by domain-experts with limited programming knowledge. Recent research has produced some scientifically backed insights on the benefits and limitations of DSLs. Further empirical studies are required to build a sufficient body of knowledge from which support for different claims related to DSLs can be derived. In this research study, we adopt current DSL evaluation approaches to investigate potential gains in terms of effectiveness and efficiency, through the application of our DSL Athos, a language developed for the domain of traffic and transportation simulation and optimisation. We compare Athos to the alternative of using an application library defined within a general-purpose language (GPL). We specified two sets of structurally identical tasks from the domain of vehicle routing problems and asked study groups with differing levels of programming knowledge to solve the tasks with the two approaches. The results show that inexperienced participants achieved considerable gains in effectiveness and efficiency with the usage of Athos DSL. Though hinting at Athos being the more efficient approach, the results were less distinct for more experienced programmers. The vast majority of participants stated to prefer working with Athos over the usage of the presented GPL’s API.

Abstract. Consider a family of sets and a single set, called query set. How can one quickly find a member of the family which has a maximal intersection with the query set? Strict time constraints on the query and on a possible preprocessing of the set family make this problem challenging. Such maximal intersection queries arise in a wide range of applications, including web search, recommendation systems, and distributing on-line advertisements. In general, maximal intersection queries are computationally expensive. Therefore, one need to add some assumptions about input in order to get an efficient solution. We investigate two well-motivated distributions over all families of sets and propose an algorithm for each of them. We show that with very high probability an almost optimal solution is found in time logarithmic in the size of the family. In particular, we point out a threshold phenomenon on the probabilities of intersecting sets in each of our two input models which leads to efficient algorithms mentioned above.

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