Coordinated flow model for strategic planning of autonomous mobility-on-demand systems

High-quality strategic planning of autonomous mobility-on-demand (AMOD) systems is critical for the success of the subsequent phases of AMOD system implementation. To assist in strategic AMOD planning, we propose a dynamic and flexible flow-based model of an AMOD system. The proposed model is computationally fast while capturing the state transitions of two coordinated flows (i.e. co-flows): the AMOD service fleet vehicles and AMOD customers. Capturing important quantity dynamics and conservations through a system of ordinary differential equations, the model can economically respond to a large number and a wide range of scenario-testing requests. The paper illustrates the model efficacy through a basic example and a more realistic case study. The case study envisions replacing Manhattan's existing taxi service with a hypothetical AMOD system. The results show that even a simple co-flow model can robustly predict the systemwide AMOD dynamics and support the strategic planning of AMOD systems.