T. Ramos, F. Ribeiro, D. Vigo
This work analyses a new hybrid paradigm resulting from the integration of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), commonly referred to as drones, in logistics and distribution processes. This work is motivated by a real case-study, where the company Connect Robotics, the first drone delivery provider in Portugal, made a partnership with a pharmacy located at a rural region to start implementing the delivery of medicines by drone. The pharmacy receives orders throughout the day and has to deliver in the same day with tight lead-times. The problem is modelled as a Dynamic Parallel Drone Scheduling Vehicle Routing Problem with Lead-Time. A MILP is proposed to formulate mathematically the static version of the problem, and it is embedded into a three-step solution approach to solve the dynamic version. The results obtained on real instances revealed that the solution method is effective, and some managerial insights about the impact of adding drones to the distribution operation are discussed.
Keywords: drone deliveries, unmanned aerial vehicles, last-mile deliveries, vehicle routing problem
Scheduled
APDIO-SEIO Invited Session
November 8, 2023 10:10 AM
CC1: Audience