Optimal Model and Algorithm of Medical Materials Delivery Drone Routing Problem under Major Public Health Emergencies

Lijing Du, Xiaohuan Li, Yuan Gan and Kaijun Leng
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Lijing Du: School of Safety Science and Emergency Management, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan 430070, China
Xiaohuan Li: School of Safety Science and Emergency Management, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan 430070, China
Yuan Gan: School of Economics and Finance, Guizhou University of Commerce, Guiyang 550014, China
Kaijun Leng: Research Center of Hubei Logistics Development, Hubei University of Economics, Wuhan 430205, China

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 8, 1-17

Abstract: To reduce distribution risk and improve the efficiency of medical materials delivery under major public health emergencies, this paper introduces a drone routing problem with time windows. A mixed-integer programming model is formulated considering contactless delivery, total travel time, and customer service time windows. Utilizing Dantzig–Wolfe decomposition, the proposed optimization model is converted into a path-based master problem and a pricing subproblem based on an elementary shortest path problem with resource constraints. We embed the pulse algorithm into a column generation framework to solve the proposed model. The effectiveness of the model and algorithm is verified by addressing different scales of Solomon datasets. A case study on COVID-19 illustrates the application of the proposed model and algorithm in practice. We also perform a sensitivity analysis on the drone capacity that may affect the total distribution time. The experimental results enrich the research related to vehicle routing problem models and algorithms under major public health emergencies and provide optimized relief distribution solutions for decision-makers of emergency logistics.

Keywords: major public health emergencies; drone routing problem; medical materials delivery (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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