Same-Day delivery with pickup stations and autonomous vehicles
Same-Day delivery with pickup stations and autonomous vehicles
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DOI：
10.1016/j.cor.2019.03.017
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发表时间：
2019-08
期刊：
影响因子：
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通讯作者：
M. Ulmer;Sebastian Streng
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
M. Ulmer;Sebastian Streng
当日送达已成为电子商务供应商面临的一个非常重要的挑战。然而，有效的交付概念仍未确立。在本文中，我们分析了将包裹拾取站和自动驾驶汽车结合起来进行当天交付的潜力。这种组合可以允许货物的合并、自动化交付过程和降低的操作成本。我们在业务规划层面考虑这个问题。给出了一个仓库、一组取货站和一个自动送货车队。客户动态地将货物订购到首选的取货站，并期望快速服务。货物需要从仓库运送到首选的取货站或附近的另一个取货站。自动驾驶车辆直接在车辆段和车站之间调度。为了决定何时何地派遣车辆以及装载相应的货物，我们提出了一个策略函数近似（PFA）。我们直观的PFA允许实时决策，同时平衡快速交付和整合之间的权衡。我们进行了广泛的计算研究的皮卡站网络的布伦瑞克的城市。我们展示了我们的交付概念如何允许每辆车每天快速交付多达100件货物。我们进一步配对的PFA与价值函数近似考虑异质性的需求。最后，我们得出重要的战略和战术规划的管理见解，并提出了广泛的前景看好的未来研究方向。
Same-day delivery has become a very important challenge for e-commerce providers. However, effective delivery concepts are still not established. In this paper, we analyze the potential of combining parcel pickup stations and autonomous vehicles for same-day delivery. This combination may allow for consolidation of goods, automated delivery processes, and reduced operation costs. We consider the problem on the operational planning level. A depot, a set of pickup stations, and an autonomous delivery fleet are given. Customers dynamically order goods to a preferred pickup station and expect fast service. The goods need to be delivered from the depot to the preferred pickup station or another pickup station in the close neighborhood. Autonomous vehicles are directly dispatched between the depot and the stations. To decide where and when to dispatch a vehicle and about the corresponding goods to load, we present a policy function approximation (PFA). Our intuitive PFA allows real-time decision making while balancing the tradeoff between fast delivery and consolidation. We conduct an extensive computational study for the pickup station network of the city of Braunschweig. We show how our delivery concept allows fast delivery for up to 100 delivered goods per vehicle and day. We further pair the PFA with a value function approximation to account for heterogeneity in demand. We finally derive important managerial insights for strategical and tactical planning and present an extensive outlook on promising future research directions.