Drone Delivery Problems and Drone applicability

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Rabe, Jannes (2020) Drone Delivery Problems and Drone applicability. [Dissertation (University of Nottingham only)]

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Abstract

Rising traffic congestion, increasing air pollution and increasing customer

expectations are major challenges for the urban last mile delivery. Drones are

unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) that can bring relief to the urban delivery sector. UAV

applications are recently gaining more publicity and companies are pushing the

applications of drones in the last mile delivery. The main motivation for

implementation is the opportunity of reducing the delivery cost and delivering items

faster. Optimal route planning for a set of customers that have to be served by the UAV

makes the delivery more efficient and cost-saving. In this dissertation, a practical

application is proposed as Drone Delivery Problems and solved with a written python

script based on the Google OR-Tools that calculates the sequence of customers that

minimizes the distance travelled and satisfies the additional constraints. Three

different scenarios (Travelling Salesman Problem, Vehicle Routing Problem and

Capacitated Vehicle Routing Problem) display the capability of the software to find

optimal results. The python script does find an optimal solution to all nine proposed

problems within a certain time limit and without ending in a near-optimal solution.

The second area of research in this thesis is the investigation of the applicability of

current UAV technology in supply chain operations. Most importantly, the UAV

environment has to be adjusted to the needs of this new delivery option. Laws and

regulations are holding back innovative ideas and, in most countries, commercial UAV

use is not permitted.

Item Type: Dissertation (University of Nottingham only)
Depositing User: Rabe, Jannes
Date Deposited: 19 Apr 2023 09:17
Last Modified: 19 Apr 2023 09:17
URI: https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/id/eprint/62928

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