배송 네트워크에서 드론의 유용성 검증: 차량과 드론을 혼용한 배송 네트워크의 경로계획

Abstract

This paper investigates the usefulness of drones in an urban delivery system. We define the vehicle and drone routing problem with time window (VDRPTW) and present a model that can describe a dual mode delivery system consisting of drones and vehicles in the metropolitan area. Drones are relatively free from traffic congestion but have limited flight range and capacity. Vehicles are not free from traffic congestion, and the complexity of urban road network reduces the efficiency of vehicles. Using drones and vehicles together can reduce inefficiency of the urban delivery system because of their complementary cooperation. In this paper, we assume that drones operate in a point-to-point manner between the depot and customers, and that customers in the need of fast delivery are willing to pay additional charges. For the experiment datasets, we use instances of Solomon (1987), which are well known in the Vehicle Routing Problem society. Moreover, to mirror the urban logistics demand trend, customers who want fast delivery are added to the Solomon's instances. We propose a hybrid evolutionary algorithm for solving VDRPTW. The experiment results provide different useful insights according to the geographical distributions of customers. In the instances where customers are randomly located and in instances where some customers are randomly located while others form some clusters, the dual mode delivery system displays lower total cost and higher customer satisfaction. In instances with clustered customers, the dual mode delivery system exhibits narrow competition for the total cost with the delivery system that uses only vehicles. In this case, using drones and vehicles together can reduce the level of dissatisfaction of customers who take their cargo over the time-window. From the view point of strategic flexibility, the dual mode delivery system appears to be more interesting. In meeting the objective of maximizing customer satisfaction, the use of drones and vehicles incurs less cost and requires fewer resources.