AI–Human Coordination for Net-Zero Logistics Transition: A UK–Taiwan Collaborative Framework

Decarbonizing logistics is usually framed as a technology problem — electrify the trucks, switch to alternative marine fuels, add renewables. The harder obstacle is coordination. Intermittent renewable supply, fragmented charging and bunkering networks, uncertain regulation, and capital-heavy investments all have to line up in real time, and today they seldom do. This project — a bilateral collaboration under the Taiwan-UK University Consortium (TUKUC), in the Green Energy and Net Zero Solutions theme — treats net-zero logistics as a socio-technical coordination problem rather than a purely technical one. It pairs the E3 Center at NTU, with Prof. I-Yun Lisa Hsieh as the Taiwan-side PI, with Newcastle University Business School (Dr. Haiyan Lu, UK PI), joining NTU's strength in energy-system and renewable-supply modelling to Newcastle's expertise in supply-chain operations and AI governance.

The work is organized around three linked objectives. The first diagnoses the systemic coordination failures that constrain net-zero logistics across renewable integration, infrastructure planning, and regulatory governance — comparatively, across the UK and Taiwan. The second builds an integrated modelling framework that links fluctuating renewable energy supply with time-sensitive logistics operations, folding charging and bunkering capacity and carbon-cost signals directly into routing and scheduling under infrastructure and policy constraints. The third translates that model into an AI-supported, human-governed decision architecture: AI monitors renewable availability, infrastructure capacity, and network performance and generates adaptive options, while human decision-makers set the cost–service–carbon priorities, validate assumptions, manage exceptions, and carry accountability. The premise throughout is that a net-zero transition emerges not from full automation but from a deliberate division of labor between algorithm and human judgement.

On the NTU side, the modelling stays grounded in real operational data drawn from the group's industry collaborations — warehouse operations and truck dispatching with Ally Logistic Property, and multi-site renewable integration with NextDrive — alongside its experience in solar and wind forecasting and cold-chain carbon accounting; Co-PI Prof. Li-Pen Wang adds stochastic modelling of variable renewable supply. As a seed project, much of its value lies in building the partnership itself: reciprocal academic visits (Newcastle in mid-2026, NTU in the autumn), joint research seminars, doctoral engagement, and an online workshop, with an exploratory link to the UK National Edge AI Hub to widen the network.

Running through the end of 2026, the project aims to produce a comparative working paper diagnosing UK–Taiwan coordination gaps, a proof-of-concept modelling prototype, and a concise practice-oriented toolkit for logistics and energy stakeholders — together laying the groundwork for larger joint funding bids and a durable research platform on renewable-integrated net-zero logistics.