Drone Delivery Problems and Drone applicability

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 co...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Rabe, Jannes
Format: Dissertation (University of Nottingham only)
Language:English
Published: 2020
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/62928/
_version_ 1848799984696164352
author Rabe, Jannes
author_facet Rabe, Jannes
author_sort Rabe, Jannes
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description 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.
first_indexed 2025-11-14T20:44:21Z
format Dissertation (University of Nottingham only)
id nottingham-62928
institution University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus
institution_category Local University
language English
last_indexed 2025-11-14T20:44:21Z
publishDate 2020
recordtype eprints
repository_type Digital Repository
spelling nottingham-629282023-04-19T09:17:39Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/62928/ Drone Delivery Problems and Drone applicability Rabe, Jannes 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. 2020-12-01 Dissertation (University of Nottingham only) NonPeerReviewed application/pdf en https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/62928/1/20204368_BUSI4039_Dissertation.pdf Rabe, Jannes (2020) Drone Delivery Problems and Drone applicability. [Dissertation (University of Nottingham only)]
spellingShingle Rabe, Jannes
Drone Delivery Problems and Drone applicability
title Drone Delivery Problems and Drone applicability
title_full Drone Delivery Problems and Drone applicability
title_fullStr Drone Delivery Problems and Drone applicability
title_full_unstemmed Drone Delivery Problems and Drone applicability
title_short Drone Delivery Problems and Drone applicability
title_sort drone delivery problems and drone applicability
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/62928/