@article{CHEN2026, 
author = {Cheng CHEN and Zelong LUO and Jinqiang XU and Shouming QI and Hainan HUANG and Li JIANG},
title = {Bus-Drone Collaborative Transportation in An Integrated Passenger-Cargo-Postal System},
year = {2026},
journal = {Journal of South China University of Technology (Natural Science Edition)},
volume = {54},
number = {6},
pages = {110-119},
keywords = {rural logistics, integrated passenger-Cargo-Postal transport, bus-drone collaboration, vehicle routing optimization},
url = {https://www.sciopen.com/article/10.12141/j.issn.1000-565X.250435},
doi = {10.12141/j.issn.1000-565X.250435},
abstract = {In response to the national passenger-freight-postal integration strategy and address “last mile delivery” challenges in rural logistics, this paper proposes a demand-responsive bus and drone collaborative transportation scheduling problem for rural passenger-cargo-postal integration. In the context of coexisting multi-origin to multi-destination passenger transportation demands and single-origin to multi-destination freight delivery demands, a mixed-integer linear programming model is built to minimize the total transportation cost including fixed vehicle costs, variable operating costs, and passenger in-vehicle travel time costs. The model considers constraints such as passenger boarding time windows, freight delivery time deadlines, bus capacity limits, and bus-drone coordination. It is designed to make scheduling decisions for the integrated passenger-cargo-postal transportation bus and its onboard drones. Furthermore, Based on an analysis of the problem’s characteristics, a more compact mathematical optimization model is constructed using a more streamlined variable definition approach. Finally, a numerical analysis is conducted using Bandong Town, Minqing County, Fujian Province, as a case study. Results show that the compact model outperforms the original in both solution speed and quality. Furthermore, impact analyses examine the impacts of of passenger-freight integration, drone coordination, and passenger mid-route boarding and alighting, along with a sensitivity analysis of passenger in-vehicle time coefficients, reveal that the proposed demand-responsive integrated passenger-cargo-postal bus-drone collaborative transportation can complete freight delivery tasks while ensuring passenger ride satisfaction. It also improves transportation efficiency and reduces transportation costs, representing a promising integrated passenger-freight transportation mode.}
}