Pickup and delivery with a solar-recharged vehicle

Abstract

We describe two methods for determining good single-vehicle schedules to transport expectant mothers to health facilities. We consider two objectives: maximising the total requested trip distance completed during the day, and minimising the schedule span. One of these methods is both simple and effective-it requires the scheduler to select from a list of precomputed trip patterns each day. Zimbabwe has one of the highest maternal death rates in the world. A key contributing factor is the difficulty that expectant mothers have in getting from rural villages to health care facilities. Specificallydesigned electric vehicles, called African Solar Taxis, are currently being developed for deployment. The vehicles will be charged at solar charging stations located at health care facilities. The limited speed and range means that these vehicles must be efficiently scheduled so that expectant mothers are transported to health facilities in a timely manner. Refereed/Peer-reviewed

Original document

The different versions of the original document can be found in:

• https://hdl.handle.net/1959.8/153679

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