Two-echelon multi-commodity multimodal vehicle routing problem considering user heterogeneity in city logistics

The considerable increase in parcel deliveries has negatively impacted the accessibility and livability of cities. One solution strategy is to decouple short-distance from long-distance shipping so that last-mile transport can be performed with low-footprint vehicles. Such solutions are referred to in the literature as multi-echelon...

Lock congestion relief in a multimodal network with public subsidies and competitive carriers: a two-stage game model

Transshipment can be a detour for carriers to bypass congested locks. Therefore, the local government provides subsidies to carriers reluctant to adopt transshipment due to high costs. Using the Three Gorges Dam (TGD) as the subject, we address the interaction between the government and carriers and the rational routine choice for carriers...

Formulating multi-class user equilibrium using mixed-integer linear programming

We introduce an approach to formulate and solve the multi-class user equilibrium traffic assignment as a mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) problem. Compared to simulation approaches, the analytical MILP formulation makes the solution of network assignment problems more tractable. When applied in a multi-class context, it obviates the...

Market potential of bicycle crowdshipping: A two-sided acceptance analysis

Crowdshipping has recently emerged as a sustainable option for urban parcel delivery, where transport tasks are carried out by regular citizens who are engaged in a passenger trip, instead of the usual professional carriers. A key challenge for such as service offering is to maintain a sustainable network of customers (demand) and couriers ...

Rapid manufacturing of color-based hemispherical soft tactile fingertips

Tactile sensing can provide access to information about the contact (i.e. slippage, surface feature, friction), which is out of reach of vision but crucial for manipulation. To access this information, a dense measurement of the deformation of soft fingertips is necessary. Recently, tactile sensors that rely on a camera looking at a deformable...

Performance and intrusiveness of crowdshipping systems: An experiment with commuting cyclists in The Netherlands

Crowdshipping systems are receiving increasing attention in both industry and academia. Different aspects of crowdshipping (summarized as platform, supply, and demand) are investigated in research. To date, the mutual influence of crowdshipping platform design and its supply side (with participating crowdshippers) has not yet been thoroughly...

Controlled perishable goods logistics: Real-time coordination for fresher products

This thesis provides tools for decision support systems for perishable goods logistics. It also provides an approach for enterprises to estimate the benefit of adopting the proposed logistic systems. Perishable products are produced, transported, and consumed all over the world. Thanks to perishable goods supply chains, we can enjoy safe, fresh,...

Quality-aware control for optimizing meat supply chains

Controlling food quality and reducing waste is one of the most challenging tasks in the food industry, as it is facing high rates of wastage, leading to negative environmental impact. This research focuses on improving the scheduling and control of the supply chain of Irish lamb meat using real-time quality and temperature information....

Dynamic optimization of ship energy efficiency considering time-varying environmental factors

Nowadays, optimization of ship energy efficiency attracts increasing attention in order to meet the requirement for energy conservation and emission reduction. Ship operation energy efficiency is significantly influenced by environmental factors such as wind speed and direction, water speed and depth. Owing to inherent time-variety and...

Predictive quality-aware control for scheduling of potato starch production

Modern technologies have enabled approaches to estimate freshness of perishable products during production and distribution. This allows supply chains to apply more advanced decision support systems in order to further reduce the loss of perishable products. In this paper we focus on the postharvest scheduling of starch potatoes. In...

Reducing unmet demand and spoilage in cut rose logistics: Modeling and control of fast moving perishable goods

Fresh cut flower supply chains are aware of the need for reducing spoilage and increasing customer satisfaction. This paper focuses on a part of the cut rose supply chain, from auction house to several end customers. A new business mode is considered that would allow end customers to subscribe to florists and have a continuous supply of...

Estimation of volcanic ash emissions using trajectory-based 4D-Var data assimilation

Volcanic ash forecasting is a crucial tool in hazard assessment and operational volcano monitoring. Emission parameters such as plume height, total emission mass, and vertical distribution of the emission plume rate are essential and important in the implementation of volcanic ash models. Therefore, estimation of emission parameters using...

Survey on operational perishables quility control and logistics

The k(0)-IAEA program

Probability density estimation in stochastic environmental models using reverse representations