Demand modelling and optimal vertiport placement for airport-purposed eVTOL services

Recent technological advances have only recently made Urban Air Mobility feasible as a realistic alternative to existing transport modes. Despite the growing interest, this disruptive service requires accurate strategic investments to ensure its viability in the short- and long-term. While airports have been identified as potential sites for vertiports, extending operations to the urban rest … Read more

Approximate Dynamic Programming for Crowd-shipping with In-store Customers

Crowd-shipping has gained significant attention as a last-mile delivery option over the recent years. In this study, we propose a variant of dynamic crowd-shipping model with in-store customers as crowd-shippers to deliver online orders within few hours. We formulate the problem as a Markov decision process and develop an approximate dynamic programming (ADP) policy using … Read more

A decomposition approach for integrated locomotive scheduling and driver rostering in rail freight transport

In this work, we consider the integrated problem of locomotive scheduling and driver rostering in rail freight companies. Our aim is to compute an optimal simultaneous assignment of locomotives and drivers to the trains listed in a given order book. Mathematically, this leads to the combination of a set-packing problem with compatibility constraints and a … Read more

Determining locations and layouts for parcel lockers to support supply chain viability at the last mile

The pandemic caused by the corona virus SARS-CoV-2 raised many new challenges for humanity. For instance, governments imposed regulations such as lockdowns, resulting in supply chain shocks at different tiers. Additionally, delivery services reached their capacity limits because the demand for mail orders soared temporarily during the lockdowns. We argue that one option to support … Read more

MILP models for the continuous Berth Allocation and Quay Crane Assignment Problem considering crane movement and setup times

In this technical report we present several Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP) models for the Berth Allocation and Quay Crane Assignment Problem (BACASP) considering crane movement and setup time (from now on: BACASP-S). First, we propose a MILP for the continuous-quay time-invariant BACASP in which both berthing time and position variables are continuous. Then, we … Read more

Scenario Consensus Algorithms for Solving Stochastic and Dynamic Problems

In transportation problems and in many other planning problems, there are important sources of uncertainty that must be addressed to find effective and efficient solutions. A common approach for solving these dynamic and stochastic problems is the Multiple Scenario Approach (MSA), that has been proved effective for transportation problems, but it does not provide flexibility … Read more

A two-objective optimization of ship itineraries for a cruise company

This paper deals with the problem of cruise itinerary planning which plays a central role in worldwide cruise ship tourism. In particular, the Day-by-day Cruise Itinerary Optimization (DCIO) problem is considered. Assuming that a cruise has been planned in terms of homeports and journey duration, the DCIO problem consist in determining the daily schedule of … Read more

Linear Control Policies for Online Vehicle Relocation in Shared Mobility Systems

In one-way station-based shared mobility systems, where system users share vehicles for making trips between vehicle stations, the accumulation of one-way trips inevitably causes vehicle imbalances between stations. To correct these imbalances, we focus on the effective use of linear control policies for calculating online vehicle relocations from a history of user trips. Our scenario-based … Read more

Increasing Driver Flexibility through Personalized Menus and Incentives in Ridesharing and Crowdsourced Delivery Platforms

Allowing drivers to choose which requests to fulfill provides drivers with much-needed autonomy in ridesharing and crowdsourced delivery platforms. While stochastic, a driver’s acceptance of requests in their menu is influenced by the platform’s offered compensation. Therefore, in this work, we create and solve an optimization model to determine personalized menus and incentives to offer … Read more

A Joint Demand and Supply Management Approach to Large Scale Urban Evacuation Planning: Evacuate or Shelter-in-Place, Staging and Dynamic Resource Allocation

Urban evacuation management is challenging to implement as it requires planning and coordination over a large geographical area. To address these challenges and to bolster evacuation planning and management, joint supply and demand management strategies should be considered. In this study, we explore and jointly optimize evacuate or shelter-in-place, dynamic resource allocation, and staging decisions … Read more