Drone-Fleet-Enabled Logistics: A Joint Design of Flight Trajectory and Package Delivery

Sensors (Basel). 2022 Apr 15;22(8):3056. doi: 10.3390/s22083056.

Abstract

In this work, we focus on a drone-fleet-enabled package delivery scenario, in which multiple drones fly from a start point and cooperatively deliver packages to the ground users in the presence of a number of no-fly zones (NFZs). We first mathematically model the package delivery scenario in a rigorous manner. Then, a package value maximization problem is established to optimize the flight trajectory and package delivery under the constraints of drone load and collision as well as NFZs. The formulated problem is a highly challenging mixed-integer non-convex problem. To facilitate solving it, we transform the formulated problem into an equivalent problem with special structure by using some appropriate transformations, based on which a low-complexity algorithm with favorable performance is developed using the penalty convex-concave procedure method. Finally, numerical results demonstrate the superiority of the proposed solution.

Keywords: drone fleet; logistics; no-fly zone constraints; package delivery; trajectory optimization.

MeSH terms

  • Algorithms*
  • Unmanned Aerial Devices*