Operational Research (O.R.) case studies

What’s the problem?

You are a van driver… You are in Milton Keynes and you have a delivery to make in Hoddesdon You want to find the shortest route there

Which route should you take?

What do we need? A map!

Something like this… LETCHWORTH STEVENAGE HERTFORD POTTERS BAR HITCHIN LUTON ST ALBANS HATFIELD HODDESDON CHESHUNT BEDFORD WELWYN MILTON KEYNES BOREHAMWOOD

With the distances

Distance matrix (in miles) MKLUBEHILESTWEHASABOPBCHHEHO MK LU BE HI LE ST WE HA SA BO PB CH HE HO

Let’s summarise the problem We want to find a route from Milton Keynes to Hoddesdon that is as short as possible

This is an example of where we need to use Dijkstra’s Algorithm

Dijkstra’s Algorithm finds the route between any two nodes of a network with the least possible total weight

Another example of where this is used In a Satellite Navigation System

Over the next few lessons, we will look at ways of approaching problems of this type… What next?