The Software FLO is released under the terms of the Project FLO License Agreement and is free to use for academic purposes (research and education).

Software Features

The current version 1.2.2 of FLO provides the following features:

• Solving of planar single objective location problems (median- and center problems) from the literature of location theory (e.g. the Fermat-Weber problem) with regard to different distance concepts (norms and polyhedral gauges) and some types of restrictions.
• Solving planar multiobjective location problems with respect to different solution concepts of the theory of multiobjective optimization (e.g. concept of Edgeworth-Pareto efficiency).
• Solving special classes of non-convex single- and multiobjective location problems with attraction and repulsion points.
• Overview of the solutions of different location problems on the map, where the solutions can be identified through colors and a classification scheme for location problems proposed in the literature by Hamacher and Nickel.
• Detailed information about the output of all algorithms.
• Algorithm settings can easily be changed by the user along with detailed information about the algorithm directly from within FLO.
• Modern concepts of measuring distances between location points (for approximating real word distances) can be used through the definition of polyhedral gauges.
• Loading of actual map images in the background of the coordinate system.
• Location list can be exported to a spreadsheet, and a spreadsheet location list can be imported into FLO.
• Customization of the interface and the ability to save settings between sessions.
• Available in both German and English.