Planning a Swarm-Based Mobility System with Autonomous Vehicles for Sustainable and Flexible Transportation in Rural Areas

Rural areas face significant mobility challenges due to low population density, limited public transportation, and a high dependence on private vehicles, leading to restricted access for non-vehicle owners and environmental issues. This paper presents a decision support system (DSS) currently developed within the NeMo.bil project, which explores a swarm-based, on-demand mobility system using autonomous vehicles to address these challenges. The DSS integrates strategic fleet planning with real-time operational planning to optimize resource allocation and demand response. A sample use case illustrates how the tool is intended to support decision-making for fleet sizing and configuration in rural regions. As this research is ongoing, we present a preliminary concept of the DSS and outline future research directions.