Calculating harvester routes

[Jaofos]

So I'm sure someone a bit smarter than me has figured this stuff out already, but I'm wondering if there is a way to calculate the optimal number of harvesters required to move resources back to a colony?

Say I have the following setup:

System A -> (1 jump) -> System B -> (3 jumps) -> System C -> (4 jumps) -> Colony System

System A: +3550 CO/hr
System B: +1800 CO/hr
System C: +700 CO/hr

My setup includes small harvesters within the system funneling the resources to a single "hub" planet within the system. 1 (or sometimes 2) remote harvester for whenever the resources leave the system. So right now I have 1 Remote Harvester delivering resources from the hub in System A to the hub in System B, then 2 funneling those goods into System C, and 2 funneling the resources from the hub in C back to my Colony.

How could one calculate the optimal number of harvesters to funnel resources back to a colony without running partial cargo or having to have an idle harvester waiting on resources to respawn?

A couple of questions I asked myself trying to figure this out:

- What is the rate of travel between systems?
- Can harvesters make direct, diagonal jumps, or will they zig-zag?

Anybody else working on theorcrafting and want to share their findings?