Strategic Evacuation for Hurricanes and Other Regional Events

When hurricanes strike the coast of Texas, the need for evacuation systems and protocols that are well-timed and organized is imperative to saving lives.  This research project developed an evacuation scheduling algorithm that can determine optimal planning for large-scale, complex settings to minimize delays, with particular attention paid to the benefits of autonomous vehicles in terms of cost and efficiency. With hurricanes and rain events predicted to be more intense in the coming decades, planning for evacuation and emergency response is even more imperative.