Impact of Autonomous Freight Delivery on Trucking Operations
Principal Investigator(s):
Imad Al-Qadi, Bliss Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering – The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Director – Illinois Center for Transportation
Jeffery Roesler, Associate Head for Graduate Affairs Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering – The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Yanfeng Ouyang, George Krambles Endowed Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering – The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Hadi Meidani, Assistant Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering – The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Hasan Ozer, Assistant Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering – The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Project Abstract:
Connected truck operations bring exciting opportunities on energy savings by forming platoons. While truck platooning is beneficial on corridor analyses, real-life implementation of platooning depends on many factors such as additional investment needed for connected infrastructure, addressing first- and last-mile delivery issues, adverse weather and traffic conditions, and pavement durability capable of sustaining increased truck traffic. To quantify the impact of these uncertainties, a virtual case analysis is crucial. Therefore, the main objective of this study is to develop a case study and compare the operation costs and benefits of connected freight to traditional trucking for actual origin-destination pairs in Illinois’ Road network that span from a populated area in Chicago to a rural part in central Illinois. The state of Illinois has a road network that is suitable for platoons. Insight regarding the impact of platoon compared to normal truck traffic will be investigated. As a result of the case study, recommendations will be outlined for efficient platoon operation. The following four tasks are identified:
- Determine the feasibility and efficiency of using drones for first- and last-mile delivery compared to land operation. An efficient algorithm for planning drone routes to pick up and deliver freight to/from trucks and ground-based depots will be developed.
- Develop real-time optimization to identify optimum platooning scheme based on uncertainties such as traffic level, weather, and number of platoon trucks.
- Quantify pavement damage caused by regular truck traffic and truck platoons at multiple penetration levels.
- Determine the costs and benefits of using additional infrastructure equipment necessary for platooning such as connected devices or embedded passive sensing material for controlling lateral positions of connected trucks.
Block 1: Analysis of Drone-based Last-mile Delivery Systems under Aerial Congestion: A Continuum Approximation Approach
Block 2: Pavement Distresses Due to Truck Platoons: A Holistic Analysis
Block 3: Enhancing Construction Work-Zone Safety by Passive Pavement-to-Vehicle Communication
Block 4: Artificial Intelligence for Optimal Truck Platooning: Impact on Autonomous Freight Delivery
Research Thrust(s): University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Award Year: 2022
Research Thrust(s): Control & Operations, Enabling Technology, Infrastructure Design & Management, Modeling & Implementation
Project Form(s):