Performance estimation and operating policies in a truck-based autonomous mobile robot delivery system

Yaohan Shen, Bipan Zou, René De Koster and T.C.E. Cheng

International Journal of Production Research, 2024, vol. 62, issue 24, 8835-8857

Abstract: Last-mile delivery is a costly and time-consuming process in e-commerce operations. Piloted by several companies, autonomous mobile robots cooperating with trucks have been implemented for parcel delivery. In this system, a truck departs from the warehouse, carrying robots and parcels, and traverses several drop-off points to release robots for parcel delivery or to deliver parcels by itself. We focus on performance estimation and system configuration, considering the no-zoning policy, where all trucks serve the whole delivery area and the zoning policy, where each truck takes charge of one zone. A queuing network is constructed to estimate the parcel throughput time and a cost minimisation model is developed for the system with a required throughput time. The optimal number of drop-off points and batch size can be numerically found to minimise the order throughput time. The zoning policy is cheaper than no-zoning policy for a small number of drop-off points and a short required throughput time, and it is cheaper in a system with a large number of drop-off points. Moreover, we find that while the truck-based autonomous mobile robot delivery system typically has a larger order throughput time than a delivery system using only robots, it is much less costly.

Date: 2024
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DOI: 10.1080/00207543.2024.2351959

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