Unmanned Aerial Vehicle in the Logistics of Pandemic Vaccination: An Exact Analytical Approach for Any Number of Vaccination Centres (original) (raw)
Related papers
The Drone delivery problem in disaster and pandemics
2020
Recently, the use of drone is growing in importance in several fields. Their capacity toavoid traffic jam and operate without a human pilot, make it the perfect method tohome delivery in natural disasters and pandemics. This paper addresses the dronedelivery problem inside Covid-19 outbreak area where quarantine status has beenapplied. This problem aims to minimize the time spent by a drone to complete thehome delivery of pharmaceutical products and other indispensable goods to a set ofresidents inside the quarantine area. We propose a new mathematical formulation forthe problem, and we develop a simulated annealing algorithm to solve large sizedinstances. To show the performance of our metaheuristic; extensive computationalexperience inspired by a real case of study in Morocco (Nador) are realized. Ourresults confirm that the proposed metaheuristic is a better alternative to solve the dronedelivery problem in disaster and pandemics than the commercial solver (CPLEX 12.7)
The economic and operational value of using drones to transport vaccines
Vaccine, 2016
Immunization programs in low and middle income countries (LMICs) face numerous challenges in getting life-saving vaccines to the people who need them. As unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) technology has progressed in recent years, potential use cases for UAVs have proliferated due to their ability to traverse difficult terrains, reduce labor, and replace fleets of vehicles that require costly maintenance. Using a HERMES-generated simulation model, we performed sensitivity analyses to assess the impact of using an unmanned aerial system (UAS) for routine vaccine distribution under a range of circumstances reflecting variations in geography, population, road conditions, and vaccine schedules. We also identified the UAV payload and UAS costs necessary for a UAS to be favorable over a traditional multi-tiered land transport system (TMLTS). Implementing the UAS in the baseline scenario improved vaccine availability (96% versus 94%) and produced logistics cost savings of $0.08 per dose admini...
Chinese Journal of Aeronautics, 2021
The advancement of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) technology in terms of industrial processes and communication and networking technologies has led to an increase in their use in civil, business, and social applications. Global rules in most countries had previously limited the use of drones to military applications due to their deployment in the open air, drones are likely to be lost, destroyed, or physically hijacked. However, more recently, the presence of COVID-19 has forced the world to present new implementing measures which will also widen the use of drones in civil and commercial and social applications, especially now in the delivery of medicines for medical home care. In the period of required public isolation as a consequence of the SARS-COV-2 pandemic, this knowledge has become one of the principal partners in the fight against the coronavirus. This paper offers a summary of the medical drone manufacturing, with a specific emphasis on its approval by the pharmaceutical sector to solve logistical problems in healthcare during times of sensitive need. We also discuss the numerous challenges to be met in the integration of drones to save our lives and suggest future research directions. The question that arises for this problem, how to optimize delivery medical supplies times in-home health care made up of drones? We conducted a synthesis literature review devoted to the use of UAVs in healthcare with their different aspects. A total of different research made are given to describe the role of UAV in Home healthcare with the presence of SARS-COV-2. We conclude that the drones will be able to optimize the way of eliminating contamination with a very high percentage (through the reduction of human contact) with the increase of the flexibility of the flight (reaching the less accessible regions every hour of the day).
A mathematical model for the delivery routing problem via drones
Pamukkale University Journal of Engineering Sciences
Logistics sector aims to distribute merchandise to designated places on time, while focusing on the entire process that starts from storing the goods at warehouses. Transportation by land is the most common and preferred way in logistics in terms of cost and service. Studies have been going on for drone transportation with the purpose of reducing the service time and making the process automated. Advancement of this technology has led to an increase in transportation with drones. Traffic is a huge problem in land transportation causing delays in delivery time. Furthermore, nature and economy are affected because of the CO2 emission, which is a consequence of intense traffic. In this study, utilizing drones for delivery is proposed with the aim of increasing customer satisfaction and minimizing transportation cost per delivery in a green way. İstanbul's Bakırköy district is selected as the implementation region, and daily drug delivery to pharmacies with drones is examined. In the first stage, a mathematical model that uses pharmacy coordinates as an input is developed for clustering analysis. In the second stage, one of these clusters is selected, and the location of the drone center that will serve pharmacies in the cluster is obtained by center of gravity method. Then, a vehicle routing model is proposed for finding the drone routes and calculating the total distance travelled within this cluster. Mathematical models are solved with GAMS/CPLEX solver. It is believed that this study will trigger new studies in "green delivery" literature in near future.
Applied Computer Science, 2023
This study is focusing on identifying the potential of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) routing for blood distribution in emergency requests in Sri Lanka compared to existing transportation modes. Capacitated Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Routing Problem was used as the methodology to find the optimal distribution plan between blood banks directing emergency requests. The developed UAV routing model was tested for different instances to compare the results. Finally, the proposed distribution process via UAVs was compared with the current distribution process for the objective function set up in the model and other Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) including energy consumption savings and operational cost savings. The average percentage reduction in distribution time, reduction in energy consumption costs and reduction in operating costs per day using UAVs was 58.57%, 96.35% and 61.20% respectively for the instances tested using the model, highlighting the potential of UAVs. Therefore, the deficiencies in Sri Lanka's present blood delivery system can be addressed using UAVs' potential for time, cost, and energy savings. The ability to save time through the deployment of UAVs to the fleet during emergency situations plays a crucial role in preventing the loss of human lives.
2017
We present results arising from the problem of sweeping a mosquito-infested area with an Un-manned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) equipped with an electrified metal grid. This is related to the Traveling Salesman Problem, the Lawn Mower Problem and, most closely, Milling with TurnCost. Planning a good trajectory can be reduced to considering penalty and budget variants of covering a grid graph with minimum turn cost. On the theoretical side, we show the solution of a problem from The Open Problems Project that had been open for more than 15 years, and hint at approximation algorithms. On the practical side, we describe an exact method based on Integer Programming that is able to compute provably optimal instances with over 500 pixels. These solutions are actually used for practical trajectories, as demonstrated in the video.
The importance of this paper is based on the change occurring in industries outside of healthcare based on the emergence of new capabilities and processes. Healthcare and public health are also undergoing changes to their delivery operating models, which results from the increased testing of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) across underdeveloped and vast African landscapes to transport rapidly, vaccines and other medicines. (HCS, 2017) Public health, healthcare organizations, and rural communities will benefit from a proposal to use unmanned aerial vehicle (UAVs) as a rapid delivery platform for vaccines. (USAID, 2017) Specifically, UAVs could be used across Eastern and sub-Saharan Africa to tackle diseases such as malaria, tuberculosis, Hepatitis B, Human Papillomavirus (HPV) and others that are endemic in Africa. (Thomas, 2018) Further, it is postulated that robust and sustainable vaccine delivery programs will result from implementation of programs that will require high capital i...
Drone Delivery Models for Healthcare
Proceedings of the 50th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (2017), 2017
Just as the mobile phone allowed developing countries to leapfrog technology in personal communication, the delivery drone has the potential to have the same effect on traditional transportation infrastructure. Inaccessible roads no longer will prevent delivery of blood, medications or other healthcare items. This paper reviews the current status of innovative drone delivery with a particular emphasis on healthcare. The leading companies in this field and their different strategies are studied. Further we review the latest decision models that facilitate management decision making for operating a drone fleet. Our contribution in this paper of two new models associated with the design of a drone healthcare delivery network will facilitate more timely, efficient and economical drone healthcare delivery to potentially save lives.
A Simulation Framework for Uav-Aided Humanitarian Logistics
2020
This paper presents a generic simulation framework for the evaluation of humanitarian logistics, which can easily be tailored to a specific disaster scenario. Within the framework, various methods can be implemented for the planning and control of vehicles in affected areas. The aim is to explore how emerging technologies, specifically Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), can contribute to humanitarian logistics. We illustrate the application of the framework by modeling the distribution of relief goods after the earthquake on Sulawesi, Indonesia in 2018.
Scheduling methods for unmanned aerial vehicle based delivery systems
2014 IEEE/AIAA 33rd Digital Avionics Systems Conference (DASC), 2014
The recent Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) approval of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) testing will transform our daily lives. Because of the inherent flexibility, ease of use, and low cost to operate; UAV-based delivery systems will become tremendously popular in the near future. In this paper, we address the issue of cyber-physical scheduling of UAV resources in order to achieve an efficient delivery service. Particularly, to reduce the overall delivery time, we develop a weight-based scheduling scheme, which considers the priority and delivery distance of service requests. To maximize the probability of effectively handling service requests with a limited number of UAVs, we first formalize the problem as an optimization problem and then use a dynamic programming approach to solve the problem. Through a simulation study, our data shows that the service delivery delay and the probability of successfully handling UAV services requests can be significantly improved upon in comparison with existing baseline schemes.