A vehicle routing problem with movement synchronization of drones, sidewalk robots, or foot-walkers

The vehicle routing problem (VRP) and its variants have many city logistics applications, such as goods delivery. The VRP extension with movement synchronization (VRPMS) has potential applications of drone and robot technologies to assist with the delivery of parcels. VRPMS seeks the optimal route for a set of composite resources, e.g. delivery van with drones, or delivery van with sidewalk robots. This paper proposes an exact formulation of the problem, and a metaheuristic approach to solve larger instances of the VRPMS in order to assess the economic benefits of the different technologies. It is shown that with the current physical constraints of drone technology, assisted delivery with drones has some challenges because of its capacity. Sidewalk robots and walkers, however, do contribute a cost savings compared to truck deliveries. As the technology matures, the presented metaheuristic approach can be used to evaluate improved economic benefits and cost benefit ratios.

• Record URL:
  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trpro.2020.03.160
• Record URL:
  http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352146520303604
• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/issn/23521465
• Supplemental Notes:
  • © 2020 Puyuan Deng et al. Published by Elsevier B.V. Abstract reprinted with permission of Elsevier.
• Authors:
  • Deng, Puyuan
  • Amirjamshidi, Glareh
  • Roorda, Matthew
• Publication Date: 2020

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Web
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: pp 29-36
• Serial:
  • Transportation Research Procedia
  • Volume: 46
  • Issue Number: 0
  • Publisher: Elsevier
  • ISSN: 2352-1465
  • Serial URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/23521465/
• Publication flags:

  Open Access (libre)

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Drones; Logistics; Mobile robots; Routes and routing; Urban goods movement; Walking
• Identifier Terms: Vehicle Routing Problem
• Subject Areas: Freight Transportation; Operations and Traffic Management; Planning and Forecasting;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01743205
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Jun 19 2020 2:19PM