Abstract & Paper Preview
Efficient pickup&delivery is critical to the competitiveness of logistics and transportation industries. The problem is challenging due to the complexity of transportation networks, high variety and uncertain demands, and traffic dynamics. The emergence of autonomous vehicles, Internet of things, mobile communications and cloud-based computing services bring new opportunities. We exploit these technological advancements to design futuristic pickup&delivery systems and strategies for efficient logistics and transportation. The objective of this research paper is to minimize the travel cost (weight*distance) of a set of autonomous cars with preplanned primary routes in an environment with stockers at intersections for transfer. We design an innovation of allowing limited detours and time tolerance to increase car sharing flexibility and opportunities for secondary rides. Thus, the cost for unit transportation is lowered; car utilization and road efficiency are increased.
Paper Download
https://drive.google.com/uc?export=download&id=0B8x6H-VDqb5MWHkyOHl3UnVvMUU
Description
Realizing the potential of autonomous cars and cloud-based traffic data, I initiated the research project, “Dispatching Autonomous Cars for Secondary Sharing of Pickup and Delivery Services” to devise green strategies that improve traffic efficiency to serve all the transportational demands. In the process, I learned optimization methods and made a technical presentation. My teammate and I plan to submit it to the IEEE Smart City Conference.