Interactive Simulation To Explore Urban Distribution Schemes

Abstract

Abstract The goal of building a shared vision about city logistics is often obstructed by the diversity of its actors (authorities, carriers, shippers, etc.). As an example, urban deliveries are sometimes not taken into account in the urban planning of cities or are simply misunderstood. This reality highlights the need for accessible and straightforward decision support tools in this field. In this work an interactive simulation is proposed as a playful tool to disseminate theoretical results from academia and lessons learned towards non-experts, who can easily interact with a model. The proposed interactive simulator aims at helping actors to broadly share and enlarge their perspective about a specific problem. That is, identifying the different objectives and constraints of other actors and converging towards a collective solution to the problem at hand. A trial was performed with 28 participants that explored and compared two different distribution schemes using interactive simulation. Positive feedback from the participants shows promising perspectives for this type of tool.