Shipper Cooperation in Stochastic Drone Delivery: A Dynamic Bayesian Game Approach

With the recent technological innovation, unmanned aerial vehicles, known as drones, have found numerous applications including package and parcel delivery for shippers. Drone delivery offers benefits over conventional ground-based vehicle delivery in terms of faster speed, lower cost, more environment-friendly, and less manpower needed. However, most of existing studies on drone delivery planning and scheduling focus on a single shipper and ignore uncertainty factors. As such, in this paper, we consider a scenario that multiple shippers can cooperate to minimize their drone delivery cost. We propose the Bayesian Shipper Cooperation in Stochastic Drone Delivery (BCoSDD) framework. The framework is composed of three functions, i.e., package assignment, shipper cooperation formation and cost management. The uncertainties of drone breakdown and misbehavior of cooperative shippers are taken into account by using multistage stochastic programming optimization and dynamic Bayesian coalition formation game. We conduct extensive performance evaluation of the BCoSDD framework by using customer locations from Solomon benchmark suite and a real Singapore logistics industry. As a result, the framework can help the shippers plan and schedule their drone delivery effectively.