Delivery drones have been attracting attention as one of the promising technologies to deliver packages. Several research studies on routing problems specifically for drone delivery scenarios have extended Vehicle Routing Problems (VRPs). Most existing VRPs are based on Traveling Salesman Problems (TSPs) for minimizing the overall distance. On the other hand, VRPs for drone delivery have been aware of energy consumption due to the consideration of battery capacity. Despite hovering motions with loading packages accounting for a large portion of energy consumption since delivery drones need to hover with several packages, little research has been conducted on drone routing problems that aim at the minimization of overall flight times. In addition, flight time is strongly influenced by windy conditions such as headwinds and tailwinds. In this paper, we propose a VRP for drone delivery in which flight time is dependent on the weight of packages in a windy environment, called Flight Speed-aware Vehicle Routing Problem with Load and Wind (FSVRPLW). In this paper, flight speed changes depending on the load and wind. Specifically, a heavier package slows down flight speeds and a lighter package speeds up flight speeds. In addition, a headwind slows down flight speeds and a tailwind speed up flight speeds. We mathematically derived the problem and developed a dynamic programming algorithm to solve the problem. In the experiments, we investigate how much impact both the weight of packages and the wind have on the flight time. The experimental results indicate that taking loads and wind into account is very effective in reducing flight times. Moreover, the results of comparing the effects of load and wind indicate that flight time largely depends on the weight of packages.
Drone is one of the promising vehicles that have exhibited the potential to reduce the cost and time in the field of logistics. However, due to the limitation of battery capacities, the flight time remains short. Therefore, energy consumption is one of the most critical concerns in drone delivery services. In order to reduce the energy consumption, drone generally needs to fly to the destination in as short a time as possible. For delivery services, the drone has loads to deliver and is exposed to weather effects such as windy conditions. This paper studies a routing problem for energy minimization of delivery drones under the assumption of windy conditions. This paper formally defines Energy Minimizing Vehicle Routing Problem (EMVRP) under windy conditions. Experimental scenarios with different wind velocities and the number of customers have been simulated, and demonstrate a comparison of the metrics in the energy consumption and the flight distance.
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