Multimodal Autonomous Delivery Systems: Pilot Study of Middle- and Last-Mile Integration

This paper presents findings from a multimodal autonomous delivery pilot project conducted in Arlington, Texas, with active community participation. Over one week, an integrated system combining an uncrewed aircraft system and an autonomous ground vehicle completed 139 scheduled food box deliveries to residents. The paper highlights the operational potentials and challenges revealed through the demonstration and introduces mathematical models to evaluate four key factors—risk, cost, environmental impact, and delivery time—that affect the delivery process. Recognizing that stakeholders prioritize these factors differently, the paper proposes a guideline for formulating delivery planning and scheduling as a mixed optimization problem.