Dynamic vehicle control and scheduling of a multi‐depot physical distribution system

Real time control and scheduling systems determine the vehicle routing plan based on the current status of the system. The status of a system can be represented by different attributes of demand such as location, quantity, and due date. The objective of this article is to propose a real time dynamic vehicle control and scheduling system for multi‐depot physical distribution. To perform the system objectives effectively, the proposed system includes five major modules. These are: global information collection system, depot controller, route planner, vehicle scheduler, vechicle route and time table feedback system. A simulation experiment is described at the end of the article to evaluate the performance of the proposed system. The results indicate that the proposed system is promising and can be implemented in practical operations.