Data-driven ferry network design with candidate service arcs: the case of Zhuhai Islands in China

ABSTRACT

We investigate a ferry network design problem with candidate service arcs (FNDP-SA), which is a new variant motivated by areal-world case from Zhuhai Islands. In this research, the design of a ferry schedule must conform to strict constraints including technical feasibility, safety issues, environmental impacts and moreover, avoid conflicting with ferries from neighboring cities (i.e. HongKong, Shenzhen and Macao). Therefore, a set of cautiously approved service arcs are firstly given, based on which the ferry service network is optimized. This study is among the first to formally describe the FNDP-SA and model it as an integer program. A hybrid variable neighborhood descent (VND)-based algorithm is developed. Two sets of instances are generated based on the case of Zhuhai Islands, where the first set is based on historical ticket sales data while the second set is derived by incorporating increased demands in the future according to a questionnaire survey. Numerical studies have shown that 59% cost reduction on the first set can be achieved by the proposed VND algorithm when compared with manual results. Research outcomes of this study have been adopted and implemented to facilitate the sustainable development of the ferry service of Zhuhai Islands.     

Distance-dependent congestion pricing for downtown zones

A growing literature exploits macroscopic theories of traffic to model congestion pricing policies in downtown zones. This study introduces trip length heterogeneity into this analysis and proposes a usage-based, time-varying congestion toll that alleviates congestion while prioritizing shorter trips. Unlike conventional trip-based tolls the scheme is intended to align the fees paid by drivers with the actual congestion damage they do, and to increase the toll’s benefits as a result.The scheme is intended to maximize the number of people that finish their trips close to their desired times. The usage-based toll is compared to a traditional, trip-based toll which neglects trip length. It is found that, like trip-based tolls, properly designed usage-based tolls alleviate congestion. But they reduce schedule delay more than trip-based tolls and do so with much smaller user fees. As a result usage-based tolls leave most of those who pay with a large welfare gain. This may increase the tolls’ political acceptability.     

The split-demand one-commodity pickup-and-delivery travelling salesman problem

This paper introduces a new vehicle routing problem transferring one commodity between customers with a capacitated vehicle that can visit a customer more than once, although a maximum number of visits must be respected. It generalizes the capacitated vehicle routing problem with split demands and some other variants recently addressed in the literature. We model the problem with a single commodity flow formulation and design a branch-and-cut approach to solve it. We make use of Benders Decomposition to project out the flow variables from the formulation. Inequalities to strengthen the linear programming relaxation are also presented and separated within the approach. Extensive computational results illustrate the performance of the approach on benchmark instances from the literature.     

A distributed VNS algorithm for optimizing dial-a-ride problems in large-scale scenarios

These days, transportation and logistic problems in large cities are demanding smarter transportation services that provide flexibility and adaptability. A possible solution to this arising problem is to compute the best routes for each new scenario. In this problem, known in the literature as the dial-a-ride problem, a number of passengers are transported between pickup and delivery locations trying to minimize the routing costs while respecting a set of prespecified constraints. This problem has been solved in the literature with several approaches from small to medium sized problems. However, few efforts have dealt with large scale problems very common in massive scenarios (big cities or highly-populated regions). In this study, a new distributed algorithm based on the partition of the requests space and the combination of the routes is presented and tested on a set of 24 different scenarios of a large-scale problem (up to 16,000 requests or 32,000 locations) in the city of San Francisco. The results show that, not only the distributed algorithm is able to solve large problem instances that the corresponding sequential algorithm is unable to solve in a reasonable time, but also to have an average improvement of 9% in the smaller problems. The results have been validated by means of statistical procedures proving that the distributed algorithm can be an effective way to solve high dimensional dial-a-ride problems.     

The flying sidekick traveling salesman problem: Optimization of drone-assisted parcel delivery

Once limited to the military domain, unmanned aerial vehicles are now poised to gain widespread adoption in the commercial sector. One such application is to deploy these aircraft, also known as drones, for last-mile delivery in logistics operations. While significant research efforts are underway to improve the technology required to enable delivery by drone, less attention has been focused on the operational challenges associated with leveraging this technology. This paper provides two mathematical programming models aimed at optimal routing and scheduling of unmanned aircraft, and delivery trucks, in this new paradigm of parcel delivery. In particular, a unique variant of the classical vehicle routing problem is introduced, motivated by a scenario in which an unmanned aerial vehicle works in collaboration with a traditional delivery truck to distribute parcels. We present mixed integer linear programming formulations for two delivery-by-drone problems, along with two simple, yet effective, heuristic solution approaches to solve problems of practical size. Solutions to these problems will facilitate the adoption of unmanned aircraft for last-mile delivery. Such a delivery system is expected to provide faster receipt of customer orders at less cost to the distributor and with reduced environmental impacts. A numerical analysis demonstrates the effectiveness of the heuristics and investigates the tradeoffs between using drones with faster flight speeds versus longer endurance.     

从电缆中拾取信号的工艺方法

本文提出了一种从连接在装备上的封闭的电缆中,拾取每一根导线中流经的电信息的工艺方法。详细介绍了电缆绝缘信息环的"一环两套"的组成、制作的具体工艺流程和原理样品的实物图片。该发明直接在电缆上搭建了一个对流经电缆的各种信号可随时进行检测、监控的平台,工艺方法新颖、简单、实用,普遍适用于从电缆中进行动态信号的采集。     

旋振式内热干燥机的研制

本机器采用多层水平圆式输送料槽,并首次集振动输送与内热干煤为一体,结构紧凑新颖,干燥充分均匀,是较理想的颗粒原料干燥和热清洗设备.     

抗氯盐硅酸盐水泥的研制与在洋山港中的应用

在综合考虑耐久性、收缩以及水化热等性能情况下,优选出水泥熟料和混合材料,并掺加适量石膏,研制出用于配制海工高性能混凝土用特种水泥——抗氯盐硅酸盐水泥。用其配制的高性能混凝土按A STM C 1202-97标准的6 h电通量小于1 000 C,按NT BU ILD 443标准的氯离子扩散系数小于10×1-0 13m2/s,抗氯盐硅酸盐水泥具有较低的水化热。实际工程应用表明,抗氯盐硅酸盐水泥混凝土耐久性等性能满足设计要求。     

摆盘机水下排气噪声的研究

本文对摆盘式发动机气液脉动两相流水下排气噪声的形成过程和影响因素进行了理论和实验研究，给出了控制水下排气噪声的主要技术途径，并进行了初步实验验证。     

低水胶比条件下含硅灰或/和粉煤灰的胶凝材料的水化放热特性

采用差分水化量热仪研究了恒温((25±0.3)℃)低水胶比(W/B=0.30)条件下,纯水泥、水泥-硅灰、水泥-粉煤灰二元胶凝材料体系和水泥-硅灰-粉煤灰三元胶凝材料体系的水化放热特性。试验结果表明:相对于纯水泥,水泥-硅灰二元体系的水化诱导期延长,第二水化放热峰放热速率增加,水化减速期的总放热量减小;水泥-粉煤灰二元体系的水化诱导期显著延长,水化减速期后期的放热速率增大,整个水化历程的总放热量减小;水泥-硅灰-粉煤灰三元体系的水化诱导期显著延长,整个水化历程的水化放热速率降低,总放热量减小。