An Optimization Approach for the Van-Robot Pairs Routing in the Physical Internet Framework

Abstract

The use of specialized delivery vans to deploy autonomous robots for the last-mile delivery is a potential solution for reducing logistic expenses, alleviating urban congestion, and minimizing the environmental impacts of traditional delivery methods. According to this concept, a single van carries a certain number of robots and freight parcels from a depot to a drop-off point where a set of robots is released to deliver the freight parcels to their destinations (demand points). This paper addresses the resulting paired van-robots vehicle routing problem (VRP) and proposes a bi-objective optimization model to optimize the routing plan for both the vans and the robots with the end of optimizing both the transportation costs while considering the capacity of the robots and delivery time-windows constraints. The proposed optimization approach is applied to a case study related to the Italian city of Genoa to evaluate its performance and effectiveness, and the results are reported and discussed.