An adaptive large neighborhood search heuristic for the vehicle routing problem with time windows and delivery robots

Cheng Chen, Emrah Demir and Yuan Huang

European Journal of Operational Research, 2021, vol. 294, issue 3, 1164-1180

Abstract: Considering autonomous delivery robots in urban logistics has attracted a great deal of attention in recent years. In the meantime, new technology has led to new operational challenges, such as the routing and scheduling of vehicles and delivery robots together that are currently outside the logistics service providers’ capability. In this paper, a vehicle routing problem with time windows and delivery robots (VRPTWDR) as a variant of the classical VRP is studied. The investigated problem is concerned with the routing of a set of delivery vans equipped with a number of self-driving parcel delivery robots. To tackle the VRPTWDR, an Adaptive Large Neighborhood Search heuristic algorithm is developed. Experiments show the performance and effectiveness of the algorithm for solving the VRPTWDR, and provide insights on the use of self-driving parcel delivery robots as an alternative last mile service.

Keywords: Transportation; Vehicle routing problem; Delivery robot; Metaheuristic algorithm (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (22)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ejores:v:294:y:2021:i:3:p:1164-1180

DOI: 10.1016/j.ejor.2021.02.027

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