Plotting 'salesman' route using GPS coordinates

[MIchael Finney]

Hi Folks,

My job requires me to visit multiple retail shop across the country.

I have a list with the GPS coordinates of each premises which I sourced from google maps
ie: - the gps for Waterstones in London

51.507585, -0.126901

Is it possible for me to enter the coordinates for each premises into the tomtom, and once I have visted one,
the next nearest premises & it's coordinates will be displayed on the tomtom with a location pin?

I should point out I do not own a tomtom at this stage so if i could get pointer for a model which would do
this also.

Thanks. Mick.

 

[canderson]

These little gadgets don't have the horsepower to compute a goodly sized list of stops. Consider this site http://gebweb.net/optimap/ as a starting point for planning and sending the route to your TomTom or other device. Any of the recent series of TomTom GO units can handle imported routes. Here's a little more info on it https://gebweb.net/blogpost/2012/01/25/optimap-version-4-is-here/

There are some other tools of a similar nature out there. Anything that will generate a file that a TomTom can handle (*.itn or *.gpx) will do the job quicker and likely more efficiently in terms of routing than could possibly be done on one of these little devices. Routes are sent to the device either over WiFi or when hard connected to your PC, using TomTom's cloud app to import Point of Interest files and routes. They show up under "My Routes" on the device after they are imported.

 

[MIchael Finney]

Thanks for your reply & info canderson.

It seems a little convoluted, not on your part, but by tomtom.

I'm sure I could enter a multiple new destenations & name them as each shop name?

Only talking 80 or so addresses within a 100 mile radius at the moment.

Thanks again.

 

[Arno]

I'm sure I could enter a multiple new destenations & name them as each shop name?
Only talking 80 or so addresses within a 100 mile radius at the moment.

If you are not selecting the itn or gpx routes suggested by anderson bear in mind that in a POI category entries are listed by distance to current location.
It my be a good idea to preface the entries in you alphabetical list by 01, 02, 03 ... 10, 11 etc.

 

[canderson]

Unfortunately, this 'math problem' isn't as trivial as one might assume, and any increase in the number of points doesn't increase the computing power needed in a simple linear fashion. In fact, the problem you pose (how to reach all in a set of points using the least possible distance) is one that has been considered since the early 1800's, and its math studied extensively since about 1930. While there are algorithms that have been discovered that improve the situation, there's a lot of brute force computation going on to make it work successfully... more brute force than these little gadgets possess to get the job done in a reasonable amount of time.

Here's a quick bit of info on it -- might be fun reading. Scroll down to "History" here >> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Travelling_salesman_problem