The electric vehicle routing problem with drones: An energy minimization approach for aerial deliveries

This paper introduces the Electric Vehicle Routing Problem with Drones (EVRPD), the first VRP combining electric ground vehicles (EVs) with unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), also known as drones, in order to deliver packages to customers. The problem’s objective is to minimize the total energy consumption, focusing on the main non-constant and controllable factor of energy consumption on a delivery vehicle, the payload weight. The problem considers same-sized packages, belonging to different weight classes. EVs serve as motherships, from which drones are deployed to deliver the packages. Drones can carry multiple packages, up to a certain weight limit and their range is depended on their payload weight. For solving the EVRPD, four algorithms of the Ant Colony Optimization framework are implemented, two versions of the Ant Colony System and the Min–Max Ant System. A Variable Neighborhood Descent algorithm is utilized in all variants as a local search procedure. Instances for the EVRPD are created based on the two-echelon VRP literature and are used to test the proposed algorithms. Their computational results are compared and discussed. Practical, real-life scenarios of the EVRPD application are also presented and solved.