Browsing by Subject "Drone delivery"

Now showing 1 - 5 of 5

Open Access
Drones for relief logistics under uncertainty after an earthquake
(Elsevier BV, 2023-03-03) Dükkancı, Okan; Koberstein, Achim; Kara, Bahar Y.
This study presents a post-disaster delivery problem called the relief distribution problem using drones under uncertainty, in which critical relief items are distributed to disaster victims gathered at assembly points after a disaster, particularly an earthquake. Because roads may be obstructed by debris after an earthquake, drones can be used as the primary transportation mode. As the impact of an earthquake cannot be easily predicted, the demand and road network uncertainties are considered. Additionally, the objective is to minimize the total unsatisfied demand subject to a time-bound constraint on the deliveries, as well as the range and capacity limitations of drones. A two-stage stochastic programming and its deterministic equivalent problem formulations are presented. The scenario decomposition algorithm is implemented as an exact solution approach. To apply this study to real-life applications, a case study is conducted based on the western (European) side of Istanbul, Turkey. The computational results are used to evaluate the performance of the scenario decomposition algorithm and analyze the value of stochasticity and the expected value of perfect information under different parametric settings. We additionally conduct sensitivity analyses by varying the key parameters of the problem, such as the time-bound and capacities of the drones.
Embargo
Facility location decisions for drone delivery with riding: a literature review
(Elsevier Ltd, 2024-07) Dükkancı, O.; Campbell, J.F.; Yetiş Kara, Bahar
This study presents a comprehensive literature survey on facility location problems for drone (uncrewed vehicle) delivery in situations where drones can ride in or on other vehicles. This includes facilities visited by only one type of vehicle, as well as facilities visited by both drones and other vehicles. Unlike traditional facility location problems for delivery systems with one vehicle type, hybrid vehicle-drone delivery systems usually require determining locations where the two vehicle types meet and separate. The main goals of this paper are to review the large volume of drone delivery literature with riding from a facility location perspective to provide a connection between the studies from different research areas that cover similar problems, and to highlight future research directions in this area. We first review the functions of drones, including aerial and ground drones, and the different types of facilities used for hybrid vehicle-drone delivery systems. The literature is categorized based on the presence of resupply operations, the locations of drone launch and retrieval points, the types of drones (aerial or ground) and the location space (discrete or continuous). Each category is analyzed in terms of the modeling approach, decision(s), objective function(s), constraints and additional features. The paper concludes with promising future research directions.
Embargo
Facility location decisions for drone delivery: A literature review
(Elsevier BV, 2023-10-30) Dükkancı, Okan; Campbell, James F.; Yetiş Kara, Bahar
This study presents a comprehensive literature survey on facility location problems for drone (uncrewed vehicle) delivery, where either (i) drones are the only vehicles, or (ii) drones and other vehicles (e.g., trucks) work together for delivery, but drones do not ride in or on the other vehicles. The main goals of this review are to identify and categorize fundamental facility location problems associated with drone delivery, to document the large volume of research in this area, to provide a connection between the studies from different research fields that consider similar location problems, and to highlight promising areas for future research. We first discuss and classify the functions of drones and the various types of facilities used for drone and hybrid vehicle-drone (e.g., truck and drone, or transit and drone) delivery systems, including drone bases (fixed or temporary), other vehicle bases, recharging stations, (re)supply points, and platooning points. The literature is reviewed and categorized based on the types of vehicles involved and their interactions, the types of facilities located, the types of drones and the location space (discrete or continuous). Each category is analyzed in terms of the modeling approach, decision(s), the objective function(s), constraint(s) and additional feature(s). The paper concludes with some promising future research directions.
Open Access
Minimizing energy and cost in range-limited drone deliveries with speed optimization
(Elsevier, 2021-02-06) Dukkanci, O.; Yetiş Kara, Bahar; Bektaş, T.
This paper introduces the Energy Minimizing and Range Constrained Drone Delivery Problem (ERDDP) in which drones are used to make deliveries to a number of customers and the drones themselves are transported by traditional vehicles that act as launch points. The ERDDP consists of (i) selecting the launch points from a potential set of sites from where drones will take off to serve a number of customers, (ii) assignments of customers to the launch points, and (iii) the speed at which drones are to travel between the customers and the launch points. The paper presents a nonlinear model for the ERDDP, which minimizes the total operational cost including an explicit calculation of the energy consumption of the drone as a function of the drone speed. The deliveries are limited by both a service time bound and the range of the drone. The model is reformulated using second order cone programming, and subsequently strengthened by the use of perspective cuts, that allows the use of off-the-shelf optimization software to solve the problem. Computational results are presented on a realistic data set that quantifies the effect of various parameters on location, assignment and speed decisions.
Open Access
Optimizing vaccine delivery with drones for hard-to-reach regions
(I E E E Computer Society, 2024-01-06) Campbell, James F.; Kara, Bahar; Li, Haitao; Enayati, Shakiba; Peker, Meltem; Akenroye, Temi
This research optimizes the use of drones, alongside other transport modes, for delivery of routine childhood vaccines subject to cold chain requirements. We focus on the value of drones to improve vaccine deliveries for hard-to-reach regions. This paper first briefly describes optimization of country-level vaccine distribution from national depots to local health zone distributions centers (DCs) using both large and small drones, along with boats, trucks and planes. Then we focus on research on optimizing local vaccine delivery within one health zone, from the DC to remote aid posts, using small drones, along with walking, boats and trucks. Results using data for the island nation of Vanuatu show that drones can be very useful for vaccine delivery to replace current transportation options, and to resupply health workers with fresh vaccines at remote sites to allow more efficient health worker outreach trips. © 2024 IEEE Computer Society. All rights reserved.