Traveling Salesman Problem With A Drone Station
Traveling Salesman Problem With A Drone Station
Traveling Salesman Problem With A Drone Station
1, JANUARY 2019
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KIM AND MOON: TSP-DS 43
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44 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON SYSTEMS, MAN, AND CYBERNETICS: SYSTEMS, VOL. 49, NO. 1, JANUARY 2019
However, the assumption fails to take advantage of the drones a drone station which is relatively cheap and easy to install
capacity to freely move off truck paths and remain unaffected was defined. We need to emphasize that our study is focused
by road conditions. on a more general work of the PDSTSP model which over-
Ha et al. [27] introduced the TSP with a drone. They comes the limited usage of drones; TSP-DS can be reduced
assumed that launching and retrieving a drone is impossible at to the PDSTSP when the locations of the distribution center
the same customer node. The mathematical formulation and and drone station are the same.
two heuristic algorithms were developed. Mathew et al. [28] A drone station can store and utilize a sufficiently large
described the heterogeneous delivery problem by considering number of drones that deliver drone-fitting parcels with a lim-
a team using a truck and drones with complementary capabili- ited flight range. A large number of drones seems to be vague,
ties based on the assumption that drone-serviceable customers therefore, we present the lower bound of the number of drones
can only receive deliveries by drones. The problem can be which guarantees the minimum makespan of the total deliv-
reduced to the generalized traveling problem, which can be ery time in a latter section. After a truck arrives at the station,
solved with many heuristics methods. In addition, they defined drone-fitting parcels are processed for drone delivery and the
the multiple warehouse delivery problem by showing a special station is said to be activated. We assume that the location
case of the heterogeneous delivery problem and developing of the station is relatively far from the distribution center; a
two heuristic approaches. Ferrandez et al. [29] compared the drone station is farther than the maximum flight distance of a
overall travel times and energy consumption of truck-only and drone launched from the distribution center. If a drone station
truck-drone tandem deliveries. They proposed a clustering-first is located to near a distribution center, there are not mean-
and routing-second approach. K-means algorithm, used to find ingful differences between the TSP-DS and PDSTSP. In this
an efficient launch location of drones, and genetic algorithms case, a decision maker does not operate a drone station in that
were applied to solve a truck-routing problem. operating an independent facility needs additional costs. If a
We introduce several studies not directly related to a truck- drone station is far away from a city center, the decision maker
drone delivery service; however, these works show solutions also does not operate the station because of the same reason.
to drone problems. Boone et al. [30] introduced the MTSP That is why we assumed that the location of a drone station is
which can be applied to the drone swarm route plan. They far away from the distribution center but near the city center.
divided the MTSP into two components: 1) clustering and Although the decision where to build a drone station can be an
2) TSP problems. The K-means clustering method was applied important issue, the location of the drone station is assumed
to divide cities into multiple clusters, and each drone was to be given. The reason for this assumption is that the location
allocated to each cluster. A constructive heuristic approach, problem should be solved based on the long-term perspective
called 2-Opt, was applied to solve the TSP in each cluster. while our topic mainly focuses on the daily delivery service.
This approach helps to reduce significant computation time. Because of safety and weight issues, a single drone can-
Dorling et al. [31] developed the vehicle routing problem not carry multiple parcels. Therefore, a drone visits only one
for drone delivery services by deriving an approximated customer per sortie while a truck can visit multiple customers
and linearized cost function that accounts for the energy in one trip. In addition, some customers order products that
consumption model of multiple drones and by developing exceed the volume and weight capacities of drones. The lim-
mixed integer-based programming for the problem. Further, ited flight range is due to the capacity of drone batteries.
Dorling et al. [31] built a string-based simulated annealing We assume that the travel time of vehicles are proportional
heuristic. A drone system in an indoor environment was intro- to distances and drones are faster than a truck because the
duced by Khosiawan and Nielsen [32]. The system focused on drones cross air space and the truck must follow ground routes.
a scheduling issue, and a system architecture for drone appli- Because charged batteries are supplied from a drone station,
cations in an indoor environment was developed. Furthermore, battery charging times for returned drones are not considered.
a framework of scheduler component was presented. A truck or a drone delivers an order only once to a customer.
Travel times between nodes were assumed to be symmetric.
The truck departs from the distribution center and returns to it
III. T RAVELING S ALESMAN P ROBLEM W ITH after packages are delivered. Likewise, drones return to the sta-
D RONE S TATION tion after delivering parcels. The delivery service is considered
The TSP-DS is an extension of the PDSTSP, with the major ended when a truck returns to the distribution center and all
difference in the location of off-duty drones. In the TSP-DS, drones return to their drone station. We defined the last deliv-
drones are stored in and launched from a drone station, not ery time as the time to finish the total delivery service. The
the package distribution center. In the previous research con- objective of the TSP-DS is to minimize the last delivery time.
ducted by Murray and Chu [14], it was assumed drones can
only be used at a distribution center and the number of drones
are infinite. However, in many cases, distribution centers are A. Notation
located far from a city center where a majority of customers We regard each customer as a single node and make a
are located. Constructing additional distribution centers might network with N = {1, . . . , c} as a node set of customers and
be a solution to handle this problem, but it is hard to be s ∈ N as a drone station node index. In a customer network,
realized because of enormous costs. The motivation of this we add the distribution center node. We define 0 as the index
paper was to relax the first assumption, and the concept of of the distribution center, and to avoid symmetric problems,
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KIM AND MOON: TSP-DS 45
we define c + 1 as the index of the distribution center node Constraints (7)–(9) specify the flow of the truck.
for returns. We also define origin set N0 = {0, 1, . . . , c} and Constraint (7) means that a single truck leaves the distribution
destination set N1 = {1, 2, . . . , c + 1}. Multiple drones are center and Constraint (8) means that the truck must return to
located in a drone station, and a set of drones is defined as the distribution center. Constraint (9) ensures that the truck
V = {1, 2, . . . , v}. leaves customer j ∈ N to deliver parcels after it arrives to
Customers are sorted by their package information. Weights, customer node j ∈ N from customer node i ∈ N0
volumes, and distances from the drone station are considered
ui − uj + 1 ≤ (c + 2) · 1 − xi,j ∀i ∈ N, j ∈ {N1 : j = i}
to distinguish drone-serviceable customers. We define D as a
set of drone-serviceable customers, which is a subset of N. (10)
The travel time of a truck between a pair of nodes (i, j) (∀i ∈ 1 ≤ ui ≤ c + 2 ∀i ∈ N1 . (11)
N0 , j ∈ N1 ) is defined as τi,j and that of the drones is defined as
Subtours of the truck are eliminated by
d (∀i ∈ N , j ∈ N ). The binary decision variable x equals 1
τi,j 0 1 i,j
Constraints (10) and (11)
if the truck travels from node i ∈ N0 to node j ∈ {N1 : j = i};
it is 0 otherwise. Similarly, the decision variable xsi,j is defined xi,j ∈ {0, 1} ∀i ∈ N0 , j ∈ {N1 : j = i} (12)
for the route of a truck until it arrives at a drone station. The
binary decision variable yi,v is 1 if customer i ∈ D is served
Ê
xsi,j ∈ + ∀i ∈ N0 , j ∈ {N1 : j = i} (13)
yi,v ∈ {0, 1} ∀i ∈ D, v ∈ V (14)
by drone v ∈ V launched from a drone station. Variable z
refers to the last possible delivery time of a truck and drones. ui ∈ Ê+ ∀i ∈ N1 . (15)
ui indicates the position of node i ∈ N1 in the truck’s path. Constraints (12)–(15) define the decision variables.
Although the assumptions on the number of drones and
B. Mathematical Formulation location of the station are relaxed, the proposed mathemati-
We can formulate the TSP-DS as follows: cal formulation still works to the relaxed problem. In a latter
section, we address that this formulation is decomposed to
Minimize z (1)
reduce the complexity by using the assumptions.
subject to xi,j + yj,v = 1 ∀j ∈ N (2)
i∈N0 v∈V IV. F UNDAMENTAL F EATURES OF TSP-DS
i =j j∈D
xi,j ≤ xi,j ∀i ∈
s
N0 , j ∈ N1 . (3) In the TSP-DS, a loaded truck reaches a drone station, and
activates the drone delivery process. This station activation
The objective function (1) minimizes the delivery time of a condition has important features, and we demonstrate the main
truck and drones. Constraint (2) suggests that neither a truck characteristics of the TSP-DS in this section.
nor a drone can deliver the parcel to a customer more than Proposition 1: The activation time of a drone station is
once. Constraint (3) ensures that xsi,j follows the path of xi,j : always less than or equal to z/2.
⎧ Proof: The travel time matrix of a truck is symmetric, and
⎨ 1, if i = 0 the total distance of a truck does not change when the travel
xsi,j − xsj,i = −1, if i = s ∀i ∈ N0 ∪ {c + 1}. direction of the truck is reversed on the route. For this reason,
⎩
j∈N2 j∈N2 0, otherwise. when the activation time of a drone station is greater than z/2,
(4) a truck can be chosen to the same travel route with the reverse
Constraint (4) restricts the route of a truck until it arrives direction which activates the drone station before z/2.
at a drone station
A. Routes Distortion
z≥ τi,j · xsi,j + τs,i
d
+ τi,s
d
· yi,v ∀v ∈ V (5) Generally, a drone station is used to maximize the use of
i∈N0 j∈N1 i∈D drones, and a truck is used on the shortest routes. However,
z≥ τi,j · xi,j . (6) in some cases, a truck driver takes a longer route to activate a
i∈N0 j∈N1 drone station earlier which results in the overall reduction in
i =j the objective function. Because the proposed model searches
Constraint (5) imposes the criterion that z is greater than or the optimal schedule of the global truck-drone system, in
equal to the last delivery time of drone v ∈ V launched from which a drone station and a truck interact, we define this
a drone station. Constraint (6) restricts that z should not less case as route distortion. In analyzing the fundamental features
than the last delivery time of a truck of the drone-truck system, we do not take into consideration
two assumptions: the sufficiently large number of drones in
x0,j = 1 (7) a drone station and the minimum distance between the distri-
j∈N1 bution center and the drone station. However, we assume that
xi,c+1 = 1 (8) the number of drones are less than that of customers.
i∈N0 There are two types of the route distortions. In one, a
truck delivers parcels to customers who can be serviced
xi,j = xj,k ∀j ∈ N. (9)
by drones. This happens when the last delivery time of a
i∈N0 k∈N1
i =j k =j drone is later than that of a truck. In this case, use of
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46 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON SYSTEMS, MAN, AND CYBERNETICS: SYSTEMS, VOL. 49, NO. 1, JANUARY 2019
(c) (c)
Fig. 2. Example of disadvantage of using drones to deliver parcels to Fig. 3. Routes of a truck can be influenced by a drone station.
(a) Optimal schedule of a truck. (b) Optimal schedule of a truck and a drone.
all drone-available customers. (a) Drone station delivering parcels to all
drone-serviceable customers. (b) Optimal schedule of a truck and a drone. (c) Comparison of schedules between (a) and (b).
(c) Comparison of schedules between (a) and (b).
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KIM AND MOON: TSP-DS 47
B. Conditions for Elimination of Route Distortion (R is the diameter of the flight range). As cmax does not
Based on the assumption that a sufficient number of drones exceed the radius of the flight range, the following inequal-
is available in a station, we can draw the inequality that ity holds: τ0,s ≥ R ≥ 2 · τs,cmax . As the drone velocity
eliminates the route distortion. is the same or exceeds the speed of a truck, our problem
Proposition 2: Let cmax be the farthest drone-serviceable always satisfies Proposition 2. we also assume that a drone
customer from the drone station s and α be the travel rate of station can utilize a sufficiently large number of drones,
the drone speed to the truck speed. If the number of drones is and this assumption satisfies Proposition 3. Therefore, our
sufficient and the problem satisfies τs,0 ≥ 2 · τs,cmax /α, drones problem fulfils the elimination condition of route distortion
can finish parcel deliveries to all drone-serviceable customers (Corollary 1).
before the truck returns to the distribution center. When the problem satisfies conditions for Corollary 1, a
Proof: When the number of drones in a station is sufficient, drone station can successfully initiate delivery of all drone-
each drone can deliver a parcel to a single customer. In this compatible parcels, and a truck does not need to deliver parcels
case, the upper bound for the flight time of a drone from the to any customer serviceable by drones. Because the route dis-
station (UBd ) is the delivery time of a drone to cmax . As the tortion was eliminated, the model can be divided into two
travel time matrix of a truck is symmetric, τcmax ,s = τs,cmax and independent problems. The first problem is the TSP through
UBd = {τcmax ,s + τs,cmax }/α = 2 · τs,cmax /α. The lower bound which one finds the shortest truck routes by considering only
of the truck travel time LBt to return to the distribution center customers who cannot be serviced by drones. The second
after leaving a drone station s is τs,0 . Therefore, if UBd is less problem finds the drone station schedule that minimizes the
than LBt , the last delivery time from a drone station s can be last delivery time using drones. Because the objective value of
earlier than or the same as the delivery time of the truck. the second problem is always less than or equal to the objective
In the real world, a sufficiently large number of drones value of the first problem (Corollary 1), these two independent
is not needed, and the number of customers is the logical problems successfully solve the TSP-DS. We define these two
upper bound for drone inventory. However, when many drones problems as an independent traveling salesman and parallel
are needed, and although we cannot find the minimum num- machine scheduling problem (TSPMS).
ber before solving the problem, we can find the bound that However, in terms of a drone station schedule, the PMS
likely allows for a sufficient number of drones for delivery model can suggest an overuse of drones because the model
services. is not designed to minimize them. Furthermore, it does not
exploit the information from the solution of the TSP which
Proposition
3: If the
number of drones is
provides the arrival time of a truck at the drone station. For this
|N|/ [(α · τ0,s )/(2 · τcmax ,s )] , additional drones are
not necessary to shorten the schedule. reason, a two-stage traveling salesman and modified parallel
Proof: In Proposition 2, UBd = 2 · τs,cmax /α, and LBt is machine scheduling problem (TSMPMS) is developed to find
τs,0 . Therefore, the lower bound of the maximum number a schedule that minimizes the number of drones used at a
of customers to which a drone can deliver before a truck station by exploiting the solution of the TSP to set the drone
station schedule. The first stage is the same as the ordinary
returns to the distribution center is [(α · τ0,s )/(2 · τcmax ,s )] .
The number of is |N|, and thus,
TSP. After the TSP is solved, the activation time of a drone
customers
the required number
station as and the last delivery time of a truck zt are known. As
of drones is |N|/ [(α · τ0,s )/(2 · τcmax ,s )] .
Combining Propositions 2 and 3, we can define the follow- the problem satisfies Corollary 1, z = zt and the last delivery
ing general condition. time of a drone station can be earlier or the same as z. This
finding means the upper bound of the drone flight time UBf is
Corollary
1: If the number
of drones is more than z − as . Reflecting this information, a modified PMS problem
|N|/ [(α · τ0,s )/(2 · τcmax ,s )] and the problem satisfies
τs,0 ≥ 2 · τs,cmax /α, then the route distortion is eliminated. is solved to minimize the number of drones used under the
upper bound of the flight time. The process to calculate UBf
is described in Algorithm 1.
C. Decomposition of TSP-DS The start node (start_node) is initialized as 0 node. The
The TSP-DS is an NP-hard problem, and the typical math- activation time of a drone at a station (active_time) and the
ematical formulation can be solved very limited size of upper bound of the flight time (UBf ) are set as 0. The algo-
instances; it was hard to solve problems with more than rithm finds the next node from the start node. When the next
11 nodes of instances. One of our motivation is to reduce node j is found, the activation time and the new start node
the complexity. By analyzing the mathematical structure of is updated. The algorithm repeats until the new start node is
the TSP-DS, we found that there are special characteris- c. After the activation time is fully updated, the upper bound
tics of the mathematical formulation and exploited them of the flight time is calculated. Because the problem satis-
to derive decomposition methods which guarantee optimal fies Proposition 1, UBf can be always greater than or equal
solutions. to z/2.
For our problem, we address the situation in which the After UBf is calculated, we can find the schedule of a drone
majority of customers are located far from the distribution station that utilizes the minimum number of drones without
center and the maximum flight distance of a drone from changing the last delivery time. We define a new binary vari-
the distribution center is less than the distance between the able dv ; it is 1 if drone v ∈ V is used for the delivery and 0
drone station and the distribution center. It means τ0,s ≥ R otherwise. The mathematical formulation of the modified PMS
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KIM AND MOON: TSP-DS 49
TABLE II
AVERAGE C OMPUTATION T IMES (S ECONDS ) OF THE TSP-DS, TSPMS,
AND TSMPMS W ITH R ESPECT TO THE N UMBER OF C USTOMERS
IN THE E XPERIMENT R EGION
V. C OMPUTATIONAL E XPERIMENTS
Results of computational experiments and the insight of the
developed model are presented in this section. The models
were built in XPRESS-IVE 7.9 with the XPRESS-MP math-
ematical programming solver. Experiments were conducted
with an Intel Core i5-3570 CPU 3.4 GHz with 8.00 GB of
RAM in Windows 10.
According to Murray and Chu [14], the flight range of
a commercial drone is approximately 16 km (≈10 miles).
generated to evaluate the performances of the other models,
Therefore, we assumed that a circle with 16 km radius is a fea-
and the number of customers is increased from 20 to 80. In
sible flight region. To compare the PDSTSP and the TSP-DS,
each customer set, ten random instances were generated. The
we set two different flight areas. The feasible flight area from
travel rate α was fixed at 2. We stopped the experiment of each
drone station s is defined as Region A while that from the
model when it took over 18 000 s. The detailed information
distribution center is defined Region B. To avoid overlapping
of the experiments and results are shown in Table II. Fig. 7
feasible flight regions, we made a gap between them. As a
illustrates computation times for each data set with respect to
result, the experiments were conducted in a square region of
different models.
32 km · 65 km (Fig. 6).
Although three models give the same objective value, the
Due to the probabilistic nature of parcel ordering, customers
computation times are distinct between them. With fewer cus-
were assigned randomly to specific locations. Furthermore, to
tomers, the gap is small. However, the computation times of
concentrate on the effect of a drone station on delivery, we
the TSP-DS are much greater for the data set with more cus-
only consider small and light parcels that can be delivered
tomers. Although the computation time increases are relatively
by drones. For this reason, if customers are located in the
small, the TSPMS and TSMPMS models are also not free
flight-feasible region, they are assumed to be drone-serviceable
from increased computation times. The computation time dif-
customers. When we solve the TSP-DS, customers located
ference between the TSPMS and the TSMPMS was negligible
in Region A are classified as drone-serviceable customers
in the small problems. However, in the large problems, the
but others are considered truck-only customers. However,
TSMPMS was much faster than the TSPMS. The gap between
in the PDSTSP, customers in Region B can be serviced
the computations are increased according to the size of the
by drones while those in Region A cannot be serviced by
problem because the second-stage problem of the TSMPMS
drones. In addition to this, customer locations are restricted to
uses bounds derived from the first-stage model while the
Regions A and B.
TSPMS solves two problems independently.
The number of drones in a station was calculated using
the bound of drones needed to satisfy Proposition 3. In
detail, the radius of Region A is 16 km and the distance B. Comparison Between PDSTSP and TSP-DS
between the drone station and the distribution center is 33 km. As we assume that the TSP-DS is justifiable when customers
When the travel rate α is set as 2, a drone can deliver parcels live in city centers far away from the distribution center, we
to at least two customers before a truck at the drone sta- consider the case in which more than one-half of customers
tion returns to the distribution center. Therefore, the minimum are near drone station s. To analyze the characteristics men-
number of drones to satisfy the condition for Proposition 3 is tioned in Section IV-A, we conduct experiments by varying
no more than |N|/2. the number of customers in Region A, the number of drones,
and travel rate α. The total number of customers is set at 10.
A. Computation Times In each case, ten experiments are conducted, and the savings
Two data sets are generated to evaluate the computation between the objective values of the TSP-DS (PDSTSP) and
times of the models. A small data set is used to compare the ordinary TSP is found. Each saving is calculated as [the
the performance between the TSP-DS and other models. Due objective value of the TSP—that of the TSP-DS (PDSTSP)]/
to the complexity characteristic of the TSP-DS, the number the objective value of the TSP. The detailed environment set-
of customers is increased from 7 to 11. A large data set is ting and results are shown in Table III. The results show that
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50 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON SYSTEMS, MAN, AND CYBERNETICS: SYSTEMS, VOL. 49, NO. 1, JANUARY 2019
TABLE IV
AVERAGE G APS (%) OF THE O PTIMAL VALUE B ETWEEN THE L AST
D ELIVERY T IME OF THE TSP-T AND T HAT OF THE TSP-TC W ITH
R ESPECT TO THE N UMBER OF C USTOMERS IN R EGION A,
THE N UMBER OF D RONES , AND T RAVEL R ATES
(a)
The objective value of the TSP was much later than those
of the TSP-DS and PSDTSP, which justifies use of the truck-
drone system. Moreover, the objective value of the TSP-DS
(b) is lower than that of the PDSTSP, and the maximum saving
of the optimal value is increased according to the number of
Fig. 7. Comparison of the computation times of three models. customers in Region A. It strengthens our argument that uti-
(a) Computation times of a small set. (b) Computation times of a large set. lizing a drone station helps to make the last delivery time
earlier when the distribution center is far away from a major-
TABLE III ity of customers. Likewise, the increasing number of drones
AVERAGE S AVINGS (%) OF THE O PTIMAL VALUE B ETWEEN THE TSP-DS
(PDSTSP) AND THE TSP W ITH R ESPECT TO THE N UMBER OF or increased travel rate α enlarge the saving because releas-
C USTOMERS IN R EGION A, THE N UMBER OF D RONES , ing the burden of the drone alleviates the burden created by
AND T RAVEL R ATES
inefficient truck routes.
To analyze the impacts of the main factors, such as the
number of drones, customers serviceable by drones, and
travel rate α, on route distortion, the differences between the
last delivery time of the truck side in the TSP-DS (TSP-T)
and the last delivery time of the TSP with truck only cus-
tomers (TSP-TC) are considered. The gap is calculated as
(the objective value of the TSP-T—that of the TSP-TC)/(the
objective value of the TSP-T), and detailed information is
given in Table IV. Obviously, the last delivery time of the
TSP-T is larger than or equal to that of the TSP-TC when
the number of drones was not sufficient because of route
distortion.
If the same number of drones is used, the gap is smaller
when few customers are in Region A. When 6 customers are
in Region A and travel rate α is 1.5, two drones are sufficient
to avoid route distortion. However, more than three drones
are needed at the same travel rate to serve 9 customers to
avoid route distortion. It can be observed that the number of
drones in a station has significant impact on the truck route.
when the number of drones is increased from 1 to 3, the deliv- Because the generated examples satisfy the distance condition
ery rates are not appreciably changed and the route distortions of Proposition 3, increasing the number of drones corresponds
do not happen. to the shortened truck route.
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KIM AND MOON: TSP-DS 51
TABLE V
AVERAGE AND M AXIMUM N UMBER OF D RONES U SED IN A
Algorithm 2 Mosel Code of Algorithm 1
S TATION , AND R ATIOS β AND γ st_node := 0
arrival_station := 0
flight_time := 0
forall(i in N_tsp) do
forall(j in N_tsp|getsol(x(st_node,j))>0.99) do
arrival_station := arrival_station
+ tau_original(st_node,j)
st_node := j
break
end-do
if(st_node = s) then
break
C. Minimum Number of Drones Used in Drone Station end-if
To analyze the relationship between the number of cus- end-do
tomers and number of drones used in the station without route if(arrival_station > getobjval/2) then
distortion, we calculate the minimum number of drones in the flight_limit := arrival_station
TSMPMS. We vary the number of customers from 10 to 50 else
to check the trend. Because the ratio of the number of cus- flight_limit := getobjval − arrival_station
tomers serviceable by drones/the total number of customers end-if
can affect the required number of drones, we vary this ratio
from 0.6 to 0.9, and 10 experiments are performed for each
ratio. Therefore, 40 experiments are conducted for each num- Another interesting point is that the required number of
ber of customer group. The average and maximum number of drones to eliminate route distortion is relatively small. The
drones for each customer group are derived. Moreover, ratio β required number of drones are less than one-third of cus-
shows the average number of drones used / total number tomers. Moreover, ratio β is negatively affected by the number
of customers. Similarly, γ (the maximum number of drones of customers because increasing the number of customers
used/total number of customers) is defined to check the upper leads drones to offer more options to deliver parcels to cus-
bound. The details of the experiments and results are shown tomers in the drone-service area. Therefore, drones deliver
in Table V. more parcels in a given time period if the number of customers
The average number of drones used is much less than the increases.
upper bound derived from Proposition 3. The maximum num-
ber of drones used is also smaller than the upper bound.
VI. C ONCLUSION
The maximum number of drones is approximately twice the
average. Ratios β and γ decreased for increasing number of We define a new drone and truck-drone TSP by exploring
customers. The decreasing rate of β is higher than γ . use of a drone station with three features: 1) it can utilize many
drones; 2) it is located far away from the distribution center;
and 3) it is activated for delivery after a truck arrives with
D. Discussion parcels. The TSP-DS was formulated based on mixed integer
We analyzed the flight range (the number of customers ser- programming and we analyzed characteristics of the TSP-DS.
viceable by drones), the velocity of drones, and the number of We proved that the mathematical model can be divided into
drones as main factors affecting the route distortion. However, two different mathematical models, and derived the TSPMS
in a realistic-world problem, the drone range and velocity and the TSMPMS to give the exact solution of the TSP-DS.
are difficult to control because of safety issues and limited Computational experiments showed that the fundamental char-
technologies. Fortunately, increasing the number of drones is acteristics of the TSP-DS and the TSMPMS could effectively
relatively easy because the sufficient number of drones can be reduce the complexity problem. Another experiments revealed
utilized at a drone station which leads to elimination of route that the TSP-DS is more effective than the PDSTSP when
distortion. a majority of customers are located far from the distribution
The tradeoff between the number of customers and the center. We also showed that route distortion can be eliminated
required number of drones for the delivery service provides with relatively small number of drones. We expect our model
insights into practical application. If the distribution center is can be used as a means to overcome the limits of drone facility
far away from a majority of drone-serviceable customers, con- problems, and it can be used to establish drone-truck delivery
structing a drone station will lead to better delivery outcomes. systems in the near future.
However, when the customers are distributed more evenly, the In this problem, we assumed that the locations of customers,
tradeoff for building a drone center or using trucks out of a dis- a drone station, and the distribution center are given, and the
tribution center should be considered. Although at most three results show that the distance between a drone station and
times of drones compared to that for the PDSTSP is required, the distribution center is an important factor. Therefore, the
more customers could be efficiently serviced by drones. location problem of a drone station is an extended topic of
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