Determining Optimal Routing Solution Of a Patrol CarWith Electronic Spreadsheet Model

Network flows is the basic study subject of graph theory. Arc and node routing problems are considered as a type of network flows. In time, original solution algorithms have been devoloped for arc and node routing problems which are studied under the title of graph theory. On the other hand, it is known that these problems can also be solved by linear programming approach. In this study, finding the optimal routing solution for a patrol car, which is an arc routing problem, is studied; a patrol car should pass in certain streets in a specific area at least once in any direction by taking the shortest distance in total. Firstly, the problem is modelled on the MS-Excel electronic spreadsheet by using linear programming approach and then solutions of the model are obtained by Excel-Solver soft- ware. Finally, the optimal routings for the car are determined.