A combined truck-and-robot delivery system for last-mile logistics

Abstract

In this study, we explore the effectiveness of a combined delivery system consisting of a truck and heterogeneous robots in both urban and rural areas. To this end, we propose a mixed integer linear programming model that determines the optimal routes with the objective of minimizing the total delivery time. We test the proposed model with a range of parameter values, such as different robot speeds and capacities, to investigate their impact on the performance of the proposed delivery model. Our results demonstrate the potential of incorporating a combination of a truck and heterogeneous robots in diverse geographical contexts.