IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/transb/v184y2024ics0191261524000742.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Minimizing the total travel distance for the locker-based drone delivery: A branch-and-cut-based method

Author

Listed:
  • Zhu, Waiming
  • Hu, Xiaoxuan
  • Pei, Jun
  • Pardalos, Panos M.

Abstract

This article investigates the problem of minimizing the total travel distance in locker-based drone delivery, where the roofs of lockers are reused as parking platforms for drones. It is a drone routing and parking hybrid problem with modeling challenges. We find the sufficient and necessary conditions for feasible solutions and transform the original problem into a scale-tractable one. Subsequently, we propose a compact lower-bound formulation for the transformed problem and prove the total unimodality of the coefficient matrix. Furthermore, we develop a two-stage method in which a branch and cut algorithm solves the transformed problem and a heuristic constructs practical schedules for the original problem. Simulated tests demonstrate that the method can solve each simulated instance within one second. Random tests reveal that the method can efficiently solve instances with 1000 sites and 1500 tasks within an acceptable CPU time. A sensitivity analysis indicates that the complexity arising from routing flexibility is greater than that arising from parking flexibility.

Suggested Citation

  • Zhu, Waiming & Hu, Xiaoxuan & Pei, Jun & Pardalos, Panos M., 2024. "Minimizing the total travel distance for the locker-based drone delivery: A branch-and-cut-based method," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 184(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:transb:v:184:y:2024:i:c:s0191261524000742
    DOI: 10.1016/j.trb.2024.102950
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0191261524000742
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.trb.2024.102950?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:transb:v:184:y:2024:i:c:s0191261524000742. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/548/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.