Solving electric vehicle–drone routing problem using memetic algorithm

This paper considers a cooperative system between electric vehicles and drones in last-mile logistics operations. This form of cooperation is presented as electric vehicle–drone routing problem (EVDRP). In EVDRP, a set of electric vehicles are equipped with drones to deliver parcels to a set of customer nodes. Due to the battery limitation of electric vehicles, a set of available recharging stations is considered to recharge the vehicles’ energy and/or to launch and retrieve drones. In this research, a mixed-integer programming model is formulated for EVDRP to minimize the total completion time. To solve the model, a memetic algorithm-based approach with four new problem-specific operators is developed. From comprehensive numerical experiments, the effectiveness of the algorithm is shown, and several useful managerial insights are derived.