The optimization of the "UAV-vehicle" joint delivery route considering mountainous cities

Wusheng Liu, Wang Li, Qing Zhou, Qian Die and Yan Yang

PLOS ONE, 2022, vol. 17, issue 3, 1-21

Abstract: As a new transportation tool, unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), has a broad application prospect in logistics distribution, especially for mountainous cities with complex terrain. Due to the limited delivery conditions of UAV, considering the advantages of traditional vehicle delivery, this paper proposes a joint delivery mode of UAV and vehicle, and designs three steps for the joint delivery problem of single UAV and single vehicle: first, mark all special nodes; Secondly, the route of UAV and vehicle is planned; Finally, the total delivery route is optimized to minimize the total delivery distance. Genetic algorithm and single distribution terminal optimization are used to solve the problem, and the joint delivery in this paper is compared with the traditional vehicle delivery and the independent delivery of UAV and vehicle. The results show that UAV and vehicle can cooperate with each other to complete the delivery of all customer demand nodes, and the joint delivery of UAV and vehicle can effectively reduce the total delivery distance. Finally, the sensitivity analysis of UAV’s maximum load, maximum flight distance, relative speed between UAV and vehicle, and road impedance coefficient is carried out. By relaxing the restrictions of UAV, the UAV can deliver more customers at a single time, and it complete the delivery task with vehicles efficiently.

Date: 2022
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:plo:pone00:0265518

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0265518

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