Dual-phase scheduling of apron support vehicles considering multi-vehicle coordination

The coordination restrictions of several apron support services and dynamic flight information have resulted in increased operational demand on large airport apron support vehicles and more difficulties with vehicle scheduling. Considering the difference of vehicle operation constraints in three different modes of continuous operation, capacity-limited continuous operation and round-trip operation, a multi-vehicle cooperative apron support vehicle scheduling model is established with the goal of minimizing the number of vehicles and the total driving distance. The model is solved in two stages according to the actual operation of the airport. In the static stage, a local search non-dominated corting genetic algorithms Ⅱ (LS-NSGA II) algorithm integrating local search is designed. In the dynamic stage, a similar neighborhood search algorithm is designed. The static results show that the number of vehicles and the total driving distance are reduced by 18.9% and 8.9% respectively compared with the first-come-first-served. In comparison to the big neighborhood search technique, the dynamic results can keep the number of cars in the static scheduling plan while reducing the adjusted driving distance by 25.8%. The research results can provide a certain guiding significance for the scheduling management and decision-making of large airport apron support vehicles.