Two-echelon vehicle routing problem with time windows and mobile satellites

Hongqi Li, Haotian Wang, Jun Chen and Ming Bai

Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, 2020, vol. 138, issue C, 179-201

Abstract: To tackle the logistics challenges faced by enterprises using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) with human-driven vans for parcel deliveries, we introduce the two-echelon vehicle routing problem with time windows and mobile satellites (2E-VRP-TM), which, when solved, optimizes delivery routes for a fleet of van-UAV combinations. Typically, one van carries several UAVs. The first echelon involves time-window-driven parcel deliveries using vans from a distribution center (DC) to customers. The second echelon involves UAVs being dispatched from mobile-satellite vans to serve customers with time windows and directly delivering parcels from the DC. When the first-echelon vehicles park at customer locations and wait for second-echelon vehicle departures and returns, the first-echelon vehicles are used as mobile satellites. We develop a vehicle-flow formulation, in which the mobile-satellite synchronization constraints are included to ensure the echelon interaction. We provide an adaptive large neighborhood search heuristic. Computational experiments evaluate the validity of the 2E-VRP-TM formulation and the effectiveness of the heuristic.

Keywords: Two-echelon vehicle routing problem; Mobile satellite; Time windows; Van and unmanned-aerial-vehicles; Vehicle-flow formulation; Adaptive large neighborhood search (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (20)

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DOI: 10.1016/j.trb.2020.05.010

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