OR-Tools explained

OR-Tools
Author:	Laurent Perron
Developer:	Google Optimization team
Latest Release Version:	v9.9.3963^[1]
Programming Language:	C++
Operating System:	Linux, macOS, Microsoft Windows
Genre:	Library
License:	Apache License 2.0

Google OR-Tools is a free and open-source software suite developed by Google for solving linear programming (LP), mixed integer programming (MIP), constraint programming (CP), vehicle routing (VRP), and related optimization problems.^[2]

OR-Tools is a set of components written in C++ but provides wrappers for Java, .NET and Python.

It is distributed under the Apache License 2.0.^[3]

History

OR-Tools was created by Laurent Perron in 2011.^[4]

In 2014, Google's open source linear programming solver, GLOP, was released as part of OR-Tools.^[5]

The CP-SAT solver^[6] bundled with OR-Tools has been consistently winning gold medals in the MiniZinc Challenge,^[7] an international constraint programming competition.

Features

The OR-Tools supports a variety of programming languages, including:

• Object-oriented interfaces for C++^[8]
• A Java wrapper package^[9]
• A .NET and .NET Framework wrapper package^[10]
• A Python wrapper package^[11]

OR-Tools supports a wide range of problem types,^[12] among them:

• Assignment problem^[13]
• Linear programming
• Mixed-integer programming^[14]
• Constraint programming
• Vehicle routing problem^[15]
• Network flow algorithms

It supports the FlatZinc modeling language.^[16]

See also

• COIN-OR
• CPLEX
• GLPK
• SCIP (optimization software)
• FICO Xpress
• MOSEK

Bibliography

• Book: Serge. Kruk. February 26, 2018. Practical Python AI Projects: Mathematical Models of Optimization Problems with Google OR-Tools. 1st. O'Reilly Media. 9781484234235.
• Da Col. Giacomo. Teppan. Eric C.. 2019. Google vs IBM: A Constraint Solving Challenge on the Job-Shop Scheduling Problem. 306. 259–265. Electronic Proceedings in Theoretical Computer Science. Open Publishing Association. 10.4204/eptcs.306.30. 202660711. 2075-2180. free.
• Li. Mengyun. Chow. Joseph. April 2021. School Bus Routing Problem with a Mixed Ride, Mixed Load, and Heterogeneous Fleet. 2675. 467–479. Transportation Research Record Journal of the Transportation Research Board. 7. 10.1177/03611981211016860. 237618523.

External links

• • Source code
• Video introduction to OR-Tools

Notes and References

1. Web site: Release v9.9. github.com.
2. Web site: Google OR-Tools a guide. medium.com. February 24, 2019 .
3. Web site: LICENSE-2.0.txt. github.com.
4. Book: Laurent. Perron. 2011-07-01. Operations Research and Constraint Programming at Google. Lee J. (Eds) Principles and Practice of Constraint Programming – CP 2011. Lecture Notes in Computer Science . 6876. 2. 10.1007/978-3-642-23786-7_2. 978-3-642-23786-7. 38166333 . free.
5. Web site: Sudoku, Linear Optimization, and the Ten Cent Diet. ai.googleblog.com.
6. Web site: The CP-SAT Primer. d-krupke.github.io. Dec 2, 2024 .
7. Web site: The MiniZinc Challenge. minizinc.org.
8. Web site: Homebrew package. formulae.brew.sh.
9. Web site: com.google.ortools:ortools-java. mvnrepository.com.
10. Web site: Google.OrTools. nuget.org.
11. Web site: ortools. pypi.org.
12. Web site: OR-Tools introduction. Google Developers.
13. Web site: Application of Google OR-Tools. kaggle.com.
14. PhD . Louat . Christophe . 2009 . Etude et mise en œuvre de stratégies de coupes efficaces pour des problèmes entiers mixtes 0-1. 1. 144. Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines.
15. Web site: Routing use case. activimetrics.com.
16. Web site: Software with FlatZinc implementations. minizinc.org.