Same-Day Delivery with Drone Resupply

Iman Dayarian (), Martin Savelsbergh () and John-Paul Clarke ()
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Iman Dayarian: Culverhouse College of Business, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35487;
Martin Savelsbergh: School of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia 30332;
John-Paul Clarke: School of Aerospace Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia 30332

Transportation Science, 2020, vol. 54, issue 1, 229–249

Abstract: Unmanned aerial vehicles, commonly referred to as drones , have recently seen an increased level of interest as their potential use in same-day home delivery has been promoted and advocated by large retailers and courier delivery companies. We introduce a novel way to exploit drones in same-day home delivery settings: drone resupply. We consider a home delivery system in which delivery trucks are regularly resupplied by drones. Resupply can take place whenever a delivery truck is stationary and a drone can land on the truck’s roof. We introduce the vehicle routing problem with drone resupply to capture and investigate this setting. We develop different algorithms and compare their performance. Finally, we quantify the potential benefits of drone resupply and generate valuable insights for advancing this concept.

Keywords: same-day delivery; dynamic decision making; drone delivery; vehicle routing problem (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (33)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:inm:ortrsc:v:54:y:2020:i:1:p:229-249

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