A mathematical model for the delivery routing problem via drones
Abstract
Logistics sector aims to distribute merchandise to designated places on
time, while focusing on the entire process that starts from storing the goods
at warehouses. Transportation by land is the most common and preferred way
in logistics in terms of cost and service. Studies
have been going on for drone transportation with the purpose of reducing the
service time and making the process automated. Advancement
of this technology has led to an increase in transportation with drones.
Traffic is a huge problem in land transportation
causing delays in delivery time. Furthermore, nature and economy are affected
because of the CO2 emission, which is a consequence of intense
traffic. In this study, utilizing drones for
delivery is proposed with the aim of increasing customer satisfaction and
minimizing transportation cost per delivery in a green way. İstanbul’s Bakırköy
district is selected as the implementation region, and daily drug delivery to
pharmacies with drones is examined. In the
first stage, a mathematical model that uses pharmacy coordinates as an input is
developed for clustering analysis. In the
second stage, one of these clusters is selected, and the location of the
drone center that will serve pharmacies in the cluster is obtained by center of
gravity method. Then, a vehicle routing model is
proposed for finding the drone routes and calculating the total distance
travelled within this cluster. Mathematical
models are solved with GAMS/CPLEX solver. It is believed that this study will
trigger new studies in “green delivery” literature in near future.
Keywords
References
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Details
Primary Language
English
Subjects
Engineering
Journal Section
Research Article
Authors
Sinem Han
This is me
Begüm Özer
This is me
Barış Alioğlu
This is me
Ayşe Tülin Aktin
This is me
Publication Date
February 26, 2019
Submission Date
January 19, 2018
Acceptance Date
-
Published in Issue
Year 2019 Volume: 25 Number: 1