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

Murray, C. C., & Chu, A. G. · 2015

full-text

This is the early named formulation of truck-and-drone parcel delivery as an extension of the traveling salesman problem. Later TSP-D and flying-sidekick papers use it as a starting point for comparison. This card is citation-level: the bibliographic record and the claim the field repeats, not a statement that the full text was re-read for this edition.

It presents the flying sidekick traveling salesman problem, in which one truck and one drone share customers, as a mixed-integer program. It also defines a second problem in which the aircraft flies sorties from the depot alone. Simple heuristics are offered for practical sizes, and numerical examples examine the tradeoff between a faster aircraft and a longer endurance.

There is one aircraft, and endurance and synchronization are heavily simplified. No-fly zones, wind, payload-dependent energy, and regulatory permission are not the main subject. Do not move a savings figure from the examples into a present scheduled service in a particular city.