There is a growing interest in using electric vehicles (EVs) and drones for many applications. However, battery-oriented issues, including range anxiety and battery degradation, impede adoption. Battery swap stations are one alternative to reduce these concerns that allow the swap of depleted for full batteries in minutes. We consider the problem of deriving actions at a battery swap station when explicitly considering the uncertain arrival of swap demand, battery degradation, and replacement. We model the operations at a battery swap station using a finite horizon Markov decision process model for the stochastic scheduling, allocation, and inventory replenishment problem (SAIRP), which determines when and how many batteries are charged, discharged, and replaced over time. We present theoretical proofs for the monotonicity of the value function and monotone structure of an optimal policy for special SAIRP cases. Because of the curses of dimensionality, we develop a new monotone approximate dynamic programming (ADP) method, which intelligently initializes a value function approximation using regression. In computational tests, we demonstrate the superior performance of the new regression-based monotone ADP method compared with exact methods and other monotone ADP methods. Furthermore, with the tests, we deduce policy insights for drone swap stations.
{"title":"A Monotone Approximate Dynamic Programming Approach for the Stochastic Scheduling, Allocation, and Inventory Replenishment Problem: Applications to Drone and Electric Vehicle Battery Swap Stations","authors":"A. Asadi, Sarah G. Nurre Pinkley","doi":"10.1287/trsc.2021.1108","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1287/trsc.2021.1108","url":null,"abstract":"There is a growing interest in using electric vehicles (EVs) and drones for many applications. However, battery-oriented issues, including range anxiety and battery degradation, impede adoption. Battery swap stations are one alternative to reduce these concerns that allow the swap of depleted for full batteries in minutes. We consider the problem of deriving actions at a battery swap station when explicitly considering the uncertain arrival of swap demand, battery degradation, and replacement. We model the operations at a battery swap station using a finite horizon Markov decision process model for the stochastic scheduling, allocation, and inventory replenishment problem (SAIRP), which determines when and how many batteries are charged, discharged, and replaced over time. We present theoretical proofs for the monotonicity of the value function and monotone structure of an optimal policy for special SAIRP cases. Because of the curses of dimensionality, we develop a new monotone approximate dynamic programming (ADP) method, which intelligently initializes a value function approximation using regression. In computational tests, we demonstrate the superior performance of the new regression-based monotone ADP method compared with exact methods and other monotone ADP methods. Furthermore, with the tests, we deduce policy insights for drone swap stations.","PeriodicalId":23247,"journal":{"name":"Transp. Sci.","volume":"257 1","pages":"1085-1110"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-05-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"76674818","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In the global maritime transportation network, the on-time performance of cargo transportation depends largely on the service capacity and accessibility of seaports. When opportunities for infrastructure expansions are not available, seaport congestion mitigation may require effective scheduling of the vessel traffic in the port waters. Although existing works on vessel traffic scheduling focus on minimizing vessel delays, this paper studies a novel vessel traffic scheduling problem that aims to address the inter-shipping line equity issue. We develop a lexicographic optimization model that accounts for two conflicting performance measures: efficiency, which favors minimizing total vessel delay; and equity, which favors balancing the impacts of delays fairly among shipping lines. Our model allows the port operator to quantify the efficiency-equity tradeoff and make the best vessel traffic scheduling decisions. For solving the model, we develop an effective two-stage solution method in which the first stage solves two single-objective models to obtain the maximum system efficiency and equity, whereas the second stage trades between efficiency and equity and seeks the best compromise between the two conflicting objectives. We apply our model and solution method on instances generated from the operational data of the Port of Shanghai. Our computational results show that an efficiency-oriented model can lead to highly inequitable traffic plans, whereas inter-shipping line equity can be achieved at only mild losses in efficiency, indicating that the consideration of inter-shipping line equity can lead to satisfactory service at both the vessel level and the shipping line level.
{"title":"Equitable Vessel Traffic Scheduling in a Seaport","authors":"Shuai Jia, Q. Meng, H. Kuang","doi":"10.2139/SSRN.3808857","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/SSRN.3808857","url":null,"abstract":"In the global maritime transportation network, the on-time performance of cargo transportation depends largely on the service capacity and accessibility of seaports. When opportunities for infrastructure expansions are not available, seaport congestion mitigation may require effective scheduling of the vessel traffic in the port waters. Although existing works on vessel traffic scheduling focus on minimizing vessel delays, this paper studies a novel vessel traffic scheduling problem that aims to address the inter-shipping line equity issue. We develop a lexicographic optimization model that accounts for two conflicting performance measures: efficiency, which favors minimizing total vessel delay; and equity, which favors balancing the impacts of delays fairly among shipping lines. Our model allows the port operator to quantify the efficiency-equity tradeoff and make the best vessel traffic scheduling decisions. For solving the model, we develop an effective two-stage solution method in which the first stage solves two single-objective models to obtain the maximum system efficiency and equity, whereas the second stage trades between efficiency and equity and seeks the best compromise between the two conflicting objectives. We apply our model and solution method on instances generated from the operational data of the Port of Shanghai. Our computational results show that an efficiency-oriented model can lead to highly inequitable traffic plans, whereas inter-shipping line equity can be achieved at only mild losses in efficiency, indicating that the consideration of inter-shipping line equity can lead to satisfactory service at both the vessel level and the shipping line level.","PeriodicalId":23247,"journal":{"name":"Transp. Sci.","volume":"56 1","pages":"162-181"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-04-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"81650897","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
We introduce the electric vehicle routing problem with public-private recharging strategy in which vehicles may recharge en route at public charging infrastructure as well as at a privately-owned depot. To hedge against uncertain demand at public charging stations, we design routing policies that anticipate station queue dynamics. We leverage a decomposition to identify good routing policies, including the optimal static policy and fixed-route-based rollout policies that dynamically respond to observed queues. The decomposition also enables us to establish dual bounds, providing a measure of goodness for our routing policies. In computational experiments using real instances from industry, we show the value of our policies to be within 10% of a dual bound. Furthermore, we demonstrate that our policies significantly outperform the industry-standard routing strategy in which vehicle recharging generally occurs at a central depot. Our methods stand to reduce the operating costs associated with electric vehicles, facilitating the transition from internal-combustion engine vehicles.
{"title":"Electric Vehicle Routing with Public Charging Stations","authors":"Nicholas D. Kullman, J. Goodson, J. Mendoza","doi":"10.1287/TRSC.2020.1018","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1287/TRSC.2020.1018","url":null,"abstract":"We introduce the electric vehicle routing problem with public-private recharging strategy in which vehicles may recharge en route at public charging infrastructure as well as at a privately-owned depot. To hedge against uncertain demand at public charging stations, we design routing policies that anticipate station queue dynamics. We leverage a decomposition to identify good routing policies, including the optimal static policy and fixed-route-based rollout policies that dynamically respond to observed queues. The decomposition also enables us to establish dual bounds, providing a measure of goodness for our routing policies. In computational experiments using real instances from industry, we show the value of our policies to be within 10% of a dual bound. Furthermore, we demonstrate that our policies significantly outperform the industry-standard routing strategy in which vehicle recharging generally occurs at a central depot. Our methods stand to reduce the operating costs associated with electric vehicles, facilitating the transition from internal-combustion engine vehicles.","PeriodicalId":23247,"journal":{"name":"Transp. Sci.","volume":"42 1","pages":"637-659"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-03-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"79201638","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In numerous practical vehicle-routing applications, larger vehicles are employed as mobile depots to support a fleet of smaller vehicles that perform certain tasks. The mobile depots offer the possibility of keeping the task vehicles operational by supplying them en route with certain resources. For example, in two-echelon distribution systems, small task vehicles are used to navigate narrow streets and to deliver/collect goods or to collect waste, and larger vehicles serve as mobile depots to replenish the goods to be delivered or to receive collected goods or waste at the outskirts of the urban area. Accessibility constraints may also be imposed by regulations on emissions, which make some areas only accessible for environmentally friendly vehicles such as, for example, battery-powered electric vehicles. Especially if the respective refueling infrastructure is sparse, mobile refueling stations seem to be an interesting alternative. In this paper, we introduce the vehicle-routing problem with time windows and mobile depots (VRPTWMD) to capture the routing decisions of the described applications in a generalized fashion. The VRPTWMD is characterized by fleets of task vehicles (TVs) and support vehicles (SVs). The SVs may serve as mobile depots to restore either the load or the fuel capacity of the TVs that are used to fulfill the customer requests. We present a mixed-integer program for the VRPTWMD with which small instances can be solved using a commercial solver. Moreover, we develop a high-quality hybrid heuristic composed of an adaptive large neighborhood search and a path relinking approach to provide solutions on larger problem instances. We use a newly generated set of large VRPTWMD instances to analyze the effect of different problem characteristics on the structure of the identified solutions. In addition, our approach shows very convincing performance on benchmark instances for the related two-echelon multiple-trip VRP with satellite synchronization, which can be viewed as a special case of the VRPTWMD. Our heuristic is able to significantly improve a large part of the previous best-known solutions while spending notably less computation time than the comparison algorithm from the literature.
{"title":"Intraroute Resource Replenishment with Mobile Depots","authors":"Julian Hof, Michael Schneider","doi":"10.1287/TRSC.2020.1034","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1287/TRSC.2020.1034","url":null,"abstract":"In numerous practical vehicle-routing applications, larger vehicles are employed as mobile depots to support a fleet of smaller vehicles that perform certain tasks. The mobile depots offer the possibility of keeping the task vehicles operational by supplying them en route with certain resources. For example, in two-echelon distribution systems, small task vehicles are used to navigate narrow streets and to deliver/collect goods or to collect waste, and larger vehicles serve as mobile depots to replenish the goods to be delivered or to receive collected goods or waste at the outskirts of the urban area. Accessibility constraints may also be imposed by regulations on emissions, which make some areas only accessible for environmentally friendly vehicles such as, for example, battery-powered electric vehicles. Especially if the respective refueling infrastructure is sparse, mobile refueling stations seem to be an interesting alternative. In this paper, we introduce the vehicle-routing problem with time windows and mobile depots (VRPTWMD) to capture the routing decisions of the described applications in a generalized fashion. The VRPTWMD is characterized by fleets of task vehicles (TVs) and support vehicles (SVs). The SVs may serve as mobile depots to restore either the load or the fuel capacity of the TVs that are used to fulfill the customer requests. We present a mixed-integer program for the VRPTWMD with which small instances can be solved using a commercial solver. Moreover, we develop a high-quality hybrid heuristic composed of an adaptive large neighborhood search and a path relinking approach to provide solutions on larger problem instances. We use a newly generated set of large VRPTWMD instances to analyze the effect of different problem characteristics on the structure of the identified solutions. In addition, our approach shows very convincing performance on benchmark instances for the related two-echelon multiple-trip VRP with satellite synchronization, which can be viewed as a special case of the VRPTWMD. Our heuristic is able to significantly improve a large part of the previous best-known solutions while spending notably less computation time than the comparison algorithm from the literature.","PeriodicalId":23247,"journal":{"name":"Transp. Sci.","volume":"51 1","pages":"660-686"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-03-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87990437","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This paper develops distributed optimization-based, platoon-centered connected and autonomous vehicle (CAV) car-following schemes, motivated by the recent interest in CAV platooning technologies. Various distributed optimization or control schemes have been developed for CAV platooning. However, most existing distributed schemes for platoon centered CAV control require either centralized data processing or centralized computation in at least one step of their schemes, referred to as partially distributed schemes. In this paper, we develop fully distributed optimization based, platoon centered CAV platooning control under the linear vehicle dynamics via the model predictive control approach with a general prediction horizon. These fully distributed schemes do not require centralized data processing or centralized computation through the entire schemes. To develop these schemes, we propose a new formulation of an objective function and a decomposition method that decomposes a densely coupled central objective function into the sum of multiple locally coupled functions whose coupling satisfies the network topology constraint. We then exploit locally coupled optimization and operator splitting methods to develop fully distributed schemes. Control design and stability analysis is carried out to achieve desired traffic transient performance and asymptotic stability. Numerical tests demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed fully distributed schemes and CAV platooning control.
{"title":"Fully Distributed Optimization-Based CAV Platooning Control Under Linear Vehicle Dynamics","authors":"Jinglai Shen, Eswar Kumar H. Kammara, Lili Du","doi":"10.13016/M29FWP-JWCG","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.13016/M29FWP-JWCG","url":null,"abstract":"This paper develops distributed optimization-based, platoon-centered connected and autonomous vehicle (CAV) car-following schemes, motivated by the recent interest in CAV platooning technologies. Various distributed optimization or control schemes have been developed for CAV platooning. However, most existing distributed schemes for platoon centered CAV control require either centralized data processing or centralized computation in at least one step of their schemes, referred to as partially distributed schemes. In this paper, we develop fully distributed optimization based, platoon centered CAV platooning control under the linear vehicle dynamics via the model predictive control approach with a general prediction horizon. These fully distributed schemes do not require centralized data processing or centralized computation through the entire schemes. To develop these schemes, we propose a new formulation of an objective function and a decomposition method that decomposes a densely coupled central objective function into the sum of multiple locally coupled functions whose coupling satisfies the network topology constraint. We then exploit locally coupled optimization and operator splitting methods to develop fully distributed schemes. Control design and stability analysis is carried out to achieve desired traffic transient performance and asymptotic stability. Numerical tests demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed fully distributed schemes and CAV platooning control.","PeriodicalId":23247,"journal":{"name":"Transp. Sci.","volume":"148 1","pages":"381-403"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-03-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"75522462","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Max Z. Li, Karthik Gopalakrishnan, Kristyn Pantoja, H. Balakrishnan
Understanding the characteristics of air-traffic delays and disruptions is critical for developing ways to mitigate their significant economic and environmental impacts. Conventional delay-performance metrics reflect only the magnitude of incurred flight delays at airports; in this work, we show that it is also important to characterize the spatial distribution of delays across a network of airports. We analyze graph-supported signals, leveraging techniques from spectral theory and graph-signal processing to compute analytical and simulation-driven bounds for identifying outliers in spatial distribution. We then apply these methods to the case of airport-delay networks and demonstrate the applicability of our methods by analyzing U.S. airport delays from 2008 through 2017. We also perform an airline-specific analysis, deriving insights into the delay dynamics of individual airline subnetworks. Through our analysis, we highlight key differences in delay dynamics between different types of disruptions, ranging from nor’easters and hurricanes to airport outages. We also examine delay interactions between airline subnetworks and the system-wide network and compile an inventory of outlier days that could guide future aviation operations and research. In doing so, we demonstrate how our approach can provide operational insights in an air-transportation setting. Our analysis provides a complementary metric to conventional aviation-delay benchmarks and aids airlines, traffic-flow managers, and transportation-system planners in quantifying off-nominal system performance.
{"title":"Graph Signal Processing Techniques for Analyzing Aviation Disruptions","authors":"Max Z. Li, Karthik Gopalakrishnan, Kristyn Pantoja, H. Balakrishnan","doi":"10.1287/TRSC.2020.1026","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1287/TRSC.2020.1026","url":null,"abstract":"Understanding the characteristics of air-traffic delays and disruptions is critical for developing ways to mitigate their significant economic and environmental impacts. Conventional delay-performance metrics reflect only the magnitude of incurred flight delays at airports; in this work, we show that it is also important to characterize the spatial distribution of delays across a network of airports. We analyze graph-supported signals, leveraging techniques from spectral theory and graph-signal processing to compute analytical and simulation-driven bounds for identifying outliers in spatial distribution. We then apply these methods to the case of airport-delay networks and demonstrate the applicability of our methods by analyzing U.S. airport delays from 2008 through 2017. We also perform an airline-specific analysis, deriving insights into the delay dynamics of individual airline subnetworks. Through our analysis, we highlight key differences in delay dynamics between different types of disruptions, ranging from nor’easters and hurricanes to airport outages. We also examine delay interactions between airline subnetworks and the system-wide network and compile an inventory of outlier days that could guide future aviation operations and research. In doing so, we demonstrate how our approach can provide operational insights in an air-transportation setting. Our analysis provides a complementary metric to conventional aviation-delay benchmarks and aids airlines, traffic-flow managers, and transportation-system planners in quantifying off-nominal system performance.","PeriodicalId":23247,"journal":{"name":"Transp. Sci.","volume":"13 1","pages":"553-573"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-03-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"74745590","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Scheduling the availability of order pickers is crucial for effective operations in a distribution facility with manual order pickers. When order-picking activities can only be performed in specific time windows, it is essential to jointly solve the order picker shift scheduling problem and the order picker planning problem of assigning and sequencing individual orders to order pickers. This requires decisions regarding the number of order pickers to schedule, shift start and end times, break times, as well as the assignment and timing of order-picking activities. We call this the order picker scheduling problem and present two formulations. A branch-and-price algorithm and a metaheuristic are developed to solve the problem. Numerical experiments illustrate that the metaheuristic finds near-optimal solutions at 80% shorter computation times. A case study at the largest supermarket chain in The Netherlands shows the applicability of the solution approach in a real-life business application. In particular, different shift structures are analyzed, and it is concluded that the retailer can increase the minimum compensated duration for employed workers from six hours to seven or eight hours while reducing the average labor cost with up to 5% savings when a 15-minute flexibility is implemented in the scheduling of break times.
{"title":"Workforce Scheduling with Order-Picking Assignments in Distribution Facilities","authors":"Arpan Rijal, Marco Bijvank, A. Goel, R. Koster","doi":"10.1287/TRSC.2020.1029","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1287/TRSC.2020.1029","url":null,"abstract":"Scheduling the availability of order pickers is crucial for effective operations in a distribution facility with manual order pickers. When order-picking activities can only be performed in specific time windows, it is essential to jointly solve the order picker shift scheduling problem and the order picker planning problem of assigning and sequencing individual orders to order pickers. This requires decisions regarding the number of order pickers to schedule, shift start and end times, break times, as well as the assignment and timing of order-picking activities. We call this the order picker scheduling problem and present two formulations. A branch-and-price algorithm and a metaheuristic are developed to solve the problem. Numerical experiments illustrate that the metaheuristic finds near-optimal solutions at 80% shorter computation times. A case study at the largest supermarket chain in The Netherlands shows the applicability of the solution approach in a real-life business application. In particular, different shift structures are analyzed, and it is concluded that the retailer can increase the minimum compensated duration for employed workers from six hours to seven or eight hours while reducing the average labor cost with up to 5% savings when a 15-minute flexibility is implemented in the scheduling of break times.","PeriodicalId":23247,"journal":{"name":"Transp. Sci.","volume":"57 1","pages":"725-746"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-03-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"86200013","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
For foreseen natural disasters (e.g., hurricanes or floods), the uncertainties faced in relief logistics primarily stem from evacuation activities. We present a strategic planning problem to supply relief items by considering uncertainties in disaster location, intensity, duration, and evacuee compliance. To ensure time- and cost-effectiveness in relief distribution, we develop a robust optimization model to determine centralized supply locations, and supply quantities for different transportation modes in a five-tier network. In doing so, we consider the interaction between evacuation and supply-side activities and capture the inherent uncertainties using a combination of event and box uncertainty representations. Our model provides a decision maker with the flexibility of including or excluding the time dependency of evacuation-related uncertainties. Accordingly, it suggests a threshold time window for relief distribution, beyond which either the system cost increases or the benefits of early distribution diminish. Although the model primarily aids a policymaker in strategic preparedness, its tactical variant can aid the efficient distribution. We devise an enhanced Benders decomposition-based efficient solution method to solve realistic-size problems. In a case study using geographic information system data, we highlight the complex dynamics among various system components and discuss the resulting time-cost trade-offs that also influence the network structure.
{"title":"Robust Emergency Relief Supply Planning for Foreseen Disasters Under Evacuation-Side Uncertainty","authors":"J. Dalal, H. Üster","doi":"10.1287/TRSC.2020.1020","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1287/TRSC.2020.1020","url":null,"abstract":"For foreseen natural disasters (e.g., hurricanes or floods), the uncertainties faced in relief logistics primarily stem from evacuation activities. We present a strategic planning problem to supply relief items by considering uncertainties in disaster location, intensity, duration, and evacuee compliance. To ensure time- and cost-effectiveness in relief distribution, we develop a robust optimization model to determine centralized supply locations, and supply quantities for different transportation modes in a five-tier network. In doing so, we consider the interaction between evacuation and supply-side activities and capture the inherent uncertainties using a combination of event and box uncertainty representations. Our model provides a decision maker with the flexibility of including or excluding the time dependency of evacuation-related uncertainties. Accordingly, it suggests a threshold time window for relief distribution, beyond which either the system cost increases or the benefits of early distribution diminish. Although the model primarily aids a policymaker in strategic preparedness, its tactical variant can aid the efficient distribution. We devise an enhanced Benders decomposition-based efficient solution method to solve realistic-size problems. In a case study using geographic information system data, we highlight the complex dynamics among various system components and discuss the resulting time-cost trade-offs that also influence the network structure.","PeriodicalId":23247,"journal":{"name":"Transp. Sci.","volume":"45 1","pages":"791-813"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-02-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"82153967","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In this paper, we develop a zonal-based flexible bus services (ZBFBS) by considering both passenger demands’ spatial (origin-destination or OD) and volume stochastic variations. Service requests are grouped by zonal OD pairs and number of passengers per request, and aggregated into demand categories which follow certain probability distributions. A two-stage stochastic program is formulated to minimize the expected operating cost of ZBFBS, in which the zonal visit sequences of vehicles are determined in stage 1, whereas in stage 2, service requests are assigned to either regular routes determined in stage 1 or ad hoc services that incur additional costs. Demand volume reliability and detour time reliability are introduced to ensure quality of the services and separate the problem into two phases for efficient solutions. In phase 1, given the reliability requirements, we minimize the cost of operating the regular services. In phase 2, we optimize the passenger assignment to vehicles to minimize the expected ad hoc service cost. The reliabilities are then optimized by a gradient-based approach to minimize the sum of the regular service operating cost and expected ad hoc service cost. We conduct numerical studies on vehicle capacity, detour time limit and demand volume to demonstrate the potential of ZBFBS, and apply the model to Chengdu, China, based on real data to illustrate its applicability.
{"title":"Designing zonal-based flexible bus services under stochatic demand","authors":"Enoch Lee, Xue-kai Cen, H. Lo, K. Ng","doi":"10.1287/trsc.2021.1054","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1287/trsc.2021.1054","url":null,"abstract":"In this paper, we develop a zonal-based flexible bus services (ZBFBS) by considering both passenger demands’ spatial (origin-destination or OD) and volume stochastic variations. Service requests are grouped by zonal OD pairs and number of passengers per request, and aggregated into demand categories which follow certain probability distributions. A two-stage stochastic program is formulated to minimize the expected operating cost of ZBFBS, in which the zonal visit sequences of vehicles are determined in stage 1, whereas in stage 2, service requests are assigned to either regular routes determined in stage 1 or ad hoc services that incur additional costs. Demand volume reliability and detour time reliability are introduced to ensure quality of the services and separate the problem into two phases for efficient solutions. In phase 1, given the reliability requirements, we minimize the cost of operating the regular services. In phase 2, we optimize the passenger assignment to vehicles to minimize the expected ad hoc service cost. The reliabilities are then optimized by a gradient-based approach to minimize the sum of the regular service operating cost and expected ad hoc service cost. We conduct numerical studies on vehicle capacity, detour time limit and demand volume to demonstrate the potential of ZBFBS, and apply the model to Chengdu, China, based on real data to illustrate its applicability.","PeriodicalId":23247,"journal":{"name":"Transp. Sci.","volume":"54 1","pages":"1280-1299"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-02-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"81137711","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Andreas Bärmann, Alexander Martin, Oskar Schneider
Over the last few years, optimization models for the energy-efficient operation of railway traffic have received more and more attention, particularly in connection with timetable design. In this work, we study the effect of load management via timetabling. The idea is to consider trains as time-flexible consumers in the railway power supply network and to use slight shifts in the departure times from the stations to avoid too many simultaneous departures. This limits peak consumption and can help to improve the stability of the power supply. To this end, we derive efficient formulations for the problem of an optimal timetable adjustment based on a given timetable draft, two of which even allow for totally unimodular polyhedral descriptions. The proper choice of the objective function allows the incorporation of the priorities of either the train operating companies or the infrastructure manager. These include the avoidance of large peaks in average or instantaneous consumption and the improved use of recuperated braking energy. To solve the arising optimization models efficiently, we develop specially tailored exact Benders decomposition schemes that allow for the computation of high-quality solutions within a very short time. In an extensive case study for German railway passenger traffic, we show that our methods are capable of solving the problem on a nationwide scale. We see that the optimal adjustment of timetables entails a tremendous potential for reducing energy consumption.
{"title":"Efficient Formulations and Decomposition Approaches for Power Peak Reduction in Railway Traffic via Timetabling","authors":"Andreas Bärmann, Alexander Martin, Oskar Schneider","doi":"10.1287/TRSC.2020.1021","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1287/TRSC.2020.1021","url":null,"abstract":"Over the last few years, optimization models for the energy-efficient operation of railway traffic have received more and more attention, particularly in connection with timetable design. In this work, we study the effect of load management via timetabling. The idea is to consider trains as time-flexible consumers in the railway power supply network and to use slight shifts in the departure times from the stations to avoid too many simultaneous departures. This limits peak consumption and can help to improve the stability of the power supply. To this end, we derive efficient formulations for the problem of an optimal timetable adjustment based on a given timetable draft, two of which even allow for totally unimodular polyhedral descriptions. The proper choice of the objective function allows the incorporation of the priorities of either the train operating companies or the infrastructure manager. These include the avoidance of large peaks in average or instantaneous consumption and the improved use of recuperated braking energy. To solve the arising optimization models efficiently, we develop specially tailored exact Benders decomposition schemes that allow for the computation of high-quality solutions within a very short time. In an extensive case study for German railway passenger traffic, we show that our methods are capable of solving the problem on a nationwide scale. We see that the optimal adjustment of timetables entails a tremendous potential for reducing energy consumption.","PeriodicalId":23247,"journal":{"name":"Transp. Sci.","volume":"20 1","pages":"747-767"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-02-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"79284063","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}