2018/10/25 by Marlin W. Ulmer, Barrett W. Thomas · 1 citation
Engineering · #Transportation and Mobility Innovations #UAV Applications and Optimization #Vehicle Routing Optimization Methods
paper · doi:10.1002/net.21855
crossref issued 2018/10/25 · crossref published 2018/10/25 · crossref published-online 2018/10/25 · openalex publication_date 2018/10/25 · crossref created 2018/10/25 · crossref published-print 2018/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · crossref deposited 2026/04/03 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/25 · crossref indexed 2026/07/30
In this paper, we analyze how drones can be combined with regular delivery vehicles to improve same‐day delivery performance. To this end, we present a dynamic vehicle routing problem with heterogeneous fleets. Customers order goods over the course of the day. These goods are delivered either by a drone or by a regular transportation vehicle within a delivery deadline. Drones are faster, but have a limited capacity as well as require charging after use. In the same‐day context, vehicle capacity is not a constraint, but vehicles are slow due to urban traffic. To decide whether an order is delivered by a drone or by a vehicle, we present a policy function approximation based on geographical districting. Our computational study reveals two major implications. First, geographical districting is highly effective increasing the expected number of same‐day deliveries. Second, a combination of drone and vehicle fleets may significantly reduce the required delivery resources.