A mixed truck and robot delivery approach for the daily supply of customers

Andreas Heimfarth, Manuel Ostermeier and Alexander Hübner

European Journal of Operational Research, 2022, vol. 303, issue 1, 401-421

Abstract: Innovative last-mile logistics solutions are needed to reduce delivery costs, traffic congestion, and pollution in cities. A promising concept in this context are truck-and-robot systems with robot depots, as they enable significant cost and traffic reduction compared to classic truck deliveries. The system relies on small autonomous delivery robots to cover the last meters to a customer. Existing concepts consider home deliveries by robots, while trucks are only used to transport robots and not for deliveries. This assumption disregards the fact that regular truck deliveries are still needed for some delivery requests, such as for the delivery of bulky items, or for customers who do not accept robots.

Keywords: Logistics; Vehicle routing; Autonomous vehicles; Last-mile; General variable neighborhood search (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ejores:v:303:y:2022:i:1:p:401-421

DOI: 10.1016/j.ejor.2022.02.028

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