A Coverage Control-based Idle Vehicle Rebalancing Approach for Autonomous Mobility-on-Demand Systems

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel coverage control-based method for rebalancing idle vehicles in autonomous mobility-on-demand systems, aiming to improve service efficiency and reduce passenger wait times in urban environments.

Contribution

It formulates vehicle rebalancing as a coverage control problem and demonstrates its effectiveness through detailed simulations in a large urban network.

Findings

Improved service rates in simulated environments

Reduced passenger waiting times

Potential for efficient fleet management in urban AMoD systems

Abstract

As an emerging mode of urban transportation, Autonomous Mobility-on-Demand (AMoD) systems show the potential in improving mobility in cities through timely and door-to-door services. However, the spatiotemporal imbalances between mobility demand and supply may lead to inefficiencies and a low quality of service. Vehicle rebalancing (i.e., dispatching idle vehicles to high-demand areas), is a potential solution for efficient AMoD fleet management. In this paper, we formulate the vehicle rebalancing problem as a coverage control problem for the deployment of a fleet of mobile agents for AMoD operation in urban areas. Performance is demonstrated via microscopic simulations representing a large urban road network of Shenzhen, China. Results reveal the potential of the proposed method in improving service rates and decreasing passenger waiting times.