Truck and rotary-wing drone routing problem considering flight-level selection

Hongqi Li, Feilong Wang and Zhuopeng Zhan

Journal of the Operational Research Society, 2024, vol. 75, issue 2, 205-223

Abstract: Last-mile logistics is one of the most promising areas for rotary-wing drone (RWD) applications. In the literature, routing variants that use drones in collaboration with trucks assume that both drones and trucks move along arcs in two-dimensional networks. There is a need for methodological innovations to cater to more practical and general scenarios involving flight-level decisions of RWDs in the three-dimensional network. In this study, flight level is defined as the specified height at which an RWD is allowed to fly. We introduce the truck and RWD routing problem considering flight-level selection and time windows (TDRP-FT). The TDRP-FT is characterized by RWD flight-level selection, time windows, direct delivery, multiple trucks, and multiple RWDs carried by each truck. We develop a mixed-integer linear programming model and propose a hybrid algorithm based on a greedy randomized adaptive search procedure and an adaptive large neighborhood search. We experimentally evaluate the effectiveness of the TDRP-FT model and the applicability of the hybrid algorithm to small-, medium- and large-scale instances. The computational experiment results indicate that the TDRP-FT model can be used to determine how flight levels of RWDs should be selected.

Date: 2024
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/01605682.2023.2185548 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:tjorxx:v:75:y:2024:i:2:p:205-223

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/tjor20

DOI: 10.1080/01605682.2023.2185548

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of the Operational Research Society is currently edited by Tom Archibald

More articles in Journal of the Operational Research Society from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().