A Robust Optimization Approach for a p-Hub Covering Problem with Production Facilities, Time Horizons and Transporter Ali Ghodratnama, Reza Tavakkoli-Moghaddam, Armand Baboli, BehnamVahdani Ali Ghodratnama is an Assistant Professor in Department of Industrial Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Kharazmi University, Karaj, Iran. E-mail: ghodratn@ut.ac.ir Reza Tavakkoli-Moghaddam is a Pofessor in School of Industrial Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Tehran, Iran. E- mail: tavakoli@ut.ac.ir Armand Baboli is an Associate Professor in DISP Laboratory, INSA-Lyon, F-69621, France. E-mail: armand.baboli@insa-lyon.fr Behnam Vahdani is an Assistant Professor in Department of Industrial Engineering, Faculty of Industrial and Mechanical Engineering, Qazvin Branch, Islamic Azad University, Qazvin, Iran. E-mail: b.vahdani@ut.ac.ir ABSTRACT KEYWORDS Hub location-allocation problems are currently a subject of keen interest in the research community. However, when this issue is considered in practice, significant difficulties such as traffic, commodity transportation and telecommunication tend to be overlooked. In this paper, a novel robust mathematical model for a p-hub covering problem, which tackles the inherent uncertainty of some parameters, is investigated. The main aim of the mathematical model is to minimize costs involving: 1) the covering cost; 2) the sum of the transportation costs; 3) the sum of the opening cost of facilities in the hubs; 4) the sum of the reopening cost of facilities in hubs; 5) the sum of the activating cost facilities in hubs; and 6) the sum of the transporters' purchasing cost. To solve this model, the new extensions of the robust optimization theory are used. To evaluate the robustness of the solutions obtained by the novel robust optimization approach, they are compared to those generated by the deterministic mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) model for a number of different test problems. Finally, the conclusions are presented. © 2014 IUST Publication, IJIEPR, Vol. 25, No. 4, All Rights Reserved. 1. Introduction 1 A number of helpful strategies (e.g., alliances and coalitions) are currently being either formed or investigated Corresponding author: Reza Tavakkoli-Moghaddam Email tavakoli@ut.ac.ir Paper first received Jun. 30, 2013, and in accepted form July, 05, 2014. because of the significant increase in transportation, logistics and telecommunications. Many industrial studies are dedicated to these areas, in which hub-and-spoke structures have elicited a lot of interest. They present the possibilities of well-organized capacity allocation and fleet management on different legs of transportation routes. In a hub-and-spoke network, the hub nodes are linked to common nodes by routes called spokes. Relations between December 2014, Volume 25, Number 4 pp. 317-331 http://IJIEPR.iust.ac.ir/ International Journal of Industrial Engineering & Production Research pISSN: 2008-4889 Hub covering problem, Facilities location, Opening and reopening modes, Transporter vehicle, Robust approach.