Voice Assistant and Route Optimization System for Logistics Companies in Depopulated Rural Areas

Abstract

Nowadays, the depopulation of Europe’s rural areas and the ageing of the population in these areas has led to the disappearance of basic services such as supermarkets, fishmongers, household goods, etc. In response to this problem, there are European and local initiatives to mitigate these effects by investing in Internet and Communication Technologies (ICT) infrastructure and logistics services for these areas with the aim of moving services to these isolated areas. The problem with these services lies in the difficulty of the use of ICT by aged people due to digital divide and, at the same time, the high cost in human resources, time, vehicles, and fuel presented by delivery services in these areas. This work presents a system that combines the use of intelligent personal assistants (IPA) to facilitate access to information technology for aged people to place orders and the optimization of delivery routes in a rural environment by a socially-oriented logistics company. This work presents a case study based on the fixed delivery routes of a social logistics company and describes how the proposed system could help in the optimization of routes and the reception of orders by the elderly via ICTs thanks to the use of IPAs. Subsequent to the study, route cost savings have been observed as well as the homogeneity of the cost of the routes it can provide compared to a static and predefined fixed route planning. This study also shows how the IPAs make possible the reception of orders in real time placed by the older adults from their homes. This work is aimed at improving the sustainability of services in depopulated rural areas while saving costs for the logistics companies that perform these services.