Multimodal Traffic Management Strategies for Synergistic Operations in UAV-embedded Transportation Network

With dramatically increasing traffic demand, the transportation system not only has been expanding in scale, but also welcoming new entrants including Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). Recent advancements in technology and management can potentially enable a sizable share of UAV missions. The need for and the importance of efficiently integrating UAV with traditional ground transportation modes is arising. We explored the potential benefit of operating multiple vehicle modes synergistically for delivery context integrating UAVs, traditional trucks, and electric cargo bikes. Multi-modal systems are increasingly perceived as the future solution to help reduce traffic congestion, emissions, and safety concerns. In this talk, we will introduce three different works on multimodal systems with different focuses. In our first work, we conceptualize and optimize several different multi-modal strategies with various scenarios in both single and multiple echelon last-mile delivery network in a manner that considers the impact on urban congestion. We plan the delivery route, schedule, mode selection, facility location, task assignment in the developed optimization models. Then, a congestion model is developed and integrated to the multimodal delivery model through Macroscopic Fundamental Diagram (MFD) and traffic simulation. Our second work takes into consideration of comprehensive weather uncertainties in multimodal strategy optimization. Our third work looks into further details of Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP) for Tri-modal delivery network with uncertainties. These works will eventually determine whether and under what conditions UAV delivery can mitigate entire system congestion, reduce weather uncertainties effects in a cost-effective manner. We suggest taking advantage of synergistic operation among emerging vehicle types, especially UAVs for more efficient parcel delivery.