A new freight delivery system based on automated vans is presented. Vans travel in platoons, whose first vehicle is driven and the others are driverless, during large part of their delivery routes. Each platoon moves from the Urban Distribution Centre (UDC) to a dedicated location close to the city centre, where the platoon is split up. At the split up location, the driver gets off the first van and each van of the platoon, independently from the others, carries out the last part of its delivery route moving without any driver. Meanwhile, the driver moves to another split up location or to the UDC, where a driver is needed. After completing their deliveries, vans return to the same split up location and gather again in a platoon; a driver accesses the first vehicle, then the platoon returns to the UDC. A methodology to design the proposed transport system has been developed. The methodology comprises two routing algorithms to optimise: platoon routes from the UDC to split up locations; single van routes from split up locations to receivers and return; and a microsimulator to assess, heuristically, the number of vehicles needed to operate the system and the schedule of driver activities.

中文翻译：

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基于自动货车排和固定分割位置的新型城市货运分配系统的建模和仿真

提出了一种基于自动搬运车的新型货运系统。面包车在其大部分运送路线中都排着长队行驶，第一辆车辆被驾驶，其他车辆无人驾驶。每个排都从城市配送中心（UDC）移到靠近该排的市中心的专用位置。在拆分位置，驾驶员从第一辆货车下车，排的每辆货车彼此独立，在没有任何驾驶员的情况下执行其运送路线的最后一部分。同时，驱动程序会移动到另一个拆分位置或需要驱动程序的UDC。运送完毕后，货车返回相同的分割地点，并再次聚集在排中；驾驶员进入第一辆车，然后排返回到UDC。已经开发出一种设计提议的运输系统的方法。该方法包括两种优化的路由算法：从UDC到拆分位置的排路线；以及 单厢式货车路线，从分开的地点到达接收者并返回；以及一个微型模拟器，用于启发式评估操作系统所需的车辆数量和驾驶员活动时间表。