Robot Routing Problem of Last-Mile Delivery in Indoor Environments
With the development of robot technology, trials adopting robots for last-mile delivery are continuing, and the final destination of last-mile delivery is further expanding into indoor environments. Unlike existing studies conducted for robot-based last-mile delivery in outdoor environments, two mai...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
MDPI AG
2022-09-01
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| Series: | Applied Sciences |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/12/18/9111 |
| _version_ | 1797491506760646656 |
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| author | Junsu Kim Hosang Jung |
| author_facet | Junsu Kim Hosang Jung |
| author_sort | Junsu Kim |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | With the development of robot technology, trials adopting robots for last-mile delivery are continuing, and the final destination of last-mile delivery is further expanding into indoor environments. Unlike existing studies conducted for robot-based last-mile delivery in outdoor environments, two main issues must be solved to enable last-mile delivery in indoor environments using robots. First, it is necessary to reasonably and realistically estimate the robot travel time considering horizontal and vertical movement segments within a given building. Second, optimizing the robot routing problem based on the estimated robot travel time is necessary. In this paper, we proposed a new method to estimate the robot travel time considering robot movement characteristics and an elevator in a building. In addition, we developed a mathematical model of the robot routing problem and problem-specific heuristic based on a genetic algorithm to quickly solve the proposed mathematical model. It obtained the exact solutions when the problem size was small and near-optimal solutions in the medium- and large-sized problems (average optimality gap: 0.11% and 0.18%, respectively). Through extensive experiments assuming various building structures, it was determined that the proposed model and heuristic can quickly yield realistic solutions for indoor robot-based last-mile delivery. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-10T00:50:23Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-dcf72c1761634434ba879042775fb4fd |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2076-3417 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-10T00:50:23Z |
| publishDate | 2022-09-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Applied Sciences |
| spelling | doaj.art-dcf72c1761634434ba879042775fb4fd2023-11-23T14:53:14ZengMDPI AGApplied Sciences2076-34172022-09-011218911110.3390/app12189111Robot Routing Problem of Last-Mile Delivery in Indoor EnvironmentsJunsu Kim0Hosang Jung1Graduate School of Logistics, Inha University, Incheon 22212, KoreaGraduate School of Logistics, Inha University, Incheon 22212, KoreaWith the development of robot technology, trials adopting robots for last-mile delivery are continuing, and the final destination of last-mile delivery is further expanding into indoor environments. Unlike existing studies conducted for robot-based last-mile delivery in outdoor environments, two main issues must be solved to enable last-mile delivery in indoor environments using robots. First, it is necessary to reasonably and realistically estimate the robot travel time considering horizontal and vertical movement segments within a given building. Second, optimizing the robot routing problem based on the estimated robot travel time is necessary. In this paper, we proposed a new method to estimate the robot travel time considering robot movement characteristics and an elevator in a building. In addition, we developed a mathematical model of the robot routing problem and problem-specific heuristic based on a genetic algorithm to quickly solve the proposed mathematical model. It obtained the exact solutions when the problem size was small and near-optimal solutions in the medium- and large-sized problems (average optimality gap: 0.11% and 0.18%, respectively). Through extensive experiments assuming various building structures, it was determined that the proposed model and heuristic can quickly yield realistic solutions for indoor robot-based last-mile delivery.https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/12/18/9111robot routing problemlast-mile deliveryindoor environmentsgenetic algorithmheuristics |
| spellingShingle | Junsu Kim Hosang Jung Robot Routing Problem of Last-Mile Delivery in Indoor Environments Applied Sciences robot routing problem last-mile delivery indoor environments genetic algorithm heuristics |
| title | Robot Routing Problem of Last-Mile Delivery in Indoor Environments |
| title_full | Robot Routing Problem of Last-Mile Delivery in Indoor Environments |
| title_fullStr | Robot Routing Problem of Last-Mile Delivery in Indoor Environments |
| title_full_unstemmed | Robot Routing Problem of Last-Mile Delivery in Indoor Environments |
| title_short | Robot Routing Problem of Last-Mile Delivery in Indoor Environments |
| title_sort | robot routing problem of last mile delivery in indoor environments |
| topic | robot routing problem last-mile delivery indoor environments genetic algorithm heuristics |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/12/18/9111 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT junsukim robotroutingproblemoflastmiledeliveryinindoorenvironments AT hosangjung robotroutingproblemoflastmiledeliveryinindoorenvironments |