Multimodal Autonomous Delivery Systems: A Pilot Study of Middle-Mile and Last-Mile Integration
This paper presents findings from a multimodal autonomous delivery pilot project conducted in Arlington, Texas, with active community participation. Over one week, an integrated system combining an uncrewed aircraft system and an autonomous ground vehicle completed 139 scheduled food box deliveries to residents. The paper highlights the operational potentials and challenges revealed through the demonstration and introduces mathematical models to evaluate four key factors—risk, cost, environmental impact, and delivery time—that affect the delivery process. Recognizing that stakeholders prioritize these factors differently, the paper proposes a guideline for formulating delivery planning and scheduling as a mixed optimization problem.
Authors
- A. David Klein
- F.D. Trujillo
- J Wentzel
- Yan Wan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7508-5833)
- B. George
- Ahmet Taha Koru (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8191-2324)
- Ernest Huffman
- Jenny C. Sanchez (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3113-627X)
- Ann Foss (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9060-0234)
- María M. Antón (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4348-4204)
- Santiago Barrera
- Jose Barzallo
- David Purcell
- Bruce Briglia
- Savana Nance
Institutions
- The University of Texas at Arlington (US)
- North Central Texas Council of Governments (US)
- Cleary University (US)
- Arlington Baptist College (US)
- Community Food Bank (US)
- Colombian Air Force (CO)
- DigitalSpace (United States) (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- IEEE Systems Man and Cybernetics Magazine
- Published
- 2025-01-01
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1109/msmc.2025.3613071
- Primary Topic
- Advanced Manufacturing and Logistics Optimization
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00