Cloud-Edge-Terminal-Based Synchronized Decision-Making and Control System for Municipal Solid Waste Collection and Transportation

Due to dynamics caused by factors such as random collection and transportation requirements, vehicle failures, and traffic jams, it is difficult to implement regular waste collection and transportation schemes effectively. A challenge for the stable operation of the municipal solid waste collection and transportation (MSWCT) system is how to obtain the whole process data in real time, dynamically judge the process control requirements, and effectively promote the synchronization operation between multiple systems. Based on this situation, this study proposes a cloud-edge-terminal-based synchronization decision-making and control system for MSWCT. First, smart terminals and edge computing devices are deployed at key nodes of MSWCT for real-time collection and edge computing analysis of the whole process data. Second, we propose a collaborative analysis and distributed decision-making method based on the cloud-edge-terminal multi-level computing architecture. Finally, a “three-level and two-stage” synchronization decision-making mechanism for the MSWCT system is established, which enables the synchronization operation between various subsystems. With a real-world application case, the efficiency and effectiveness of the proposed decision-making and control system are evaluated based on real data of changes in fleet capacity and transportation costs.