An Effective Hybrid Algorithm for Real-Time Optimizing Locations of Urban Mobile Stations for Luggage Check-in Service

In order to overcome the demerits of traditional city air terminals, a new service mode based on urban mobile stations for providing the urban luggage check-in service is proposed in this study. The station locations are dynamically allocated based on the real-time passenger distribution. Three aspects including the average distance from passengers to urban mobile stations, the maximum tolerable distance, and the maximum service capacity are considered. An effective hybrid algorithm is developed, in which the ripple-spreading algorithm is applied for solving many-to-many path optimization problems and an adaptive genetic algorithm is developed for locating stations. In a case study of Tianjin, China, the proposed method is applied to allocate the urban mobile stations. The service performance of the new mode is compared with that of the traditional city air terminals mode to show the advantages.