A Hybrid Variable Neighborhood Search Algorithm on Routing and Scheduling for Truck-Assisted Multi-Drone Parcel Delivery

In this paper, we study the routing and scheduling for truck-assisted multi-drone parcel delivery. Considering the existing model TSP-mD, two different road networks are adopted, where truck and drones transport goods along Manhattan distance and Euclidean distance, respectively. At the same time allowing truck to launch multiple drones at the same location, the drones can fly out from the depot to serve customers before returning to the truck, or take off from the truck to serve customers eventually flying back to the depot. Based on the common TSP, an integer planning model of TSP-mD with the shortest completion time as the optimization objective is constructed, and a hybrid variable neighborhood search algorithm is designed. Finally, experimental data prove that both the proposed model and HVNS algorithm in this paper are effective.