Quantitative and Comparative Analysis of Energy Consumption in Urban Logistics Using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles and Selected Means of Transport

Abstract

Cities are moving towards sustainable development, which consists of tasks and challenges to improve the quality of life, and minimize energy consumption. The concept of sustainable mobility includes the choice of means of transport other than the car for all journeys, especially short distances, and for the delivery of goods. Due to the growing populations of cities, lack of free space, and high costs of building infrastructure for traditional means of transport, cities are looking for modern solutions that allow for the cheap, fast, and green transportation of people and goods. Urban air mobility is the answer to these problems, and uses eVTOL (electric vertical take-off and landing) aircraft and unmanned aerial vehicle systems (UAVs). The article’s main purpose is to present an energy efficiency analysis using UAVs and electric scooters in the transport of takeaway food, which is a solution that fits into the zero-emission transport policy. The article presents the following research problem: which type of electric transport (scooters/UAVs) shows a lower demand for electric energy when delivering food from restaurants to individual customers? The analysis method was applied using the D’Andrea, Dorling, Figliozzi, Kirchstein, and Tseng energy models. The completed calculations were used to perform a comparative analysis of energy consumption for three adopted scenarios related to energy consumption by drones.

Direct Air Cooling of Pipe-Type Transmission Cable for Ampacity Enhancement: Simulations and Experiments

“…Due to continued urbanization and population growth, energy demand in modern metropolitan areas keeps escalating [1][2][3]. Transmission of electrical energy through the pipe-type power cable [4][5][6] is highly preferred over aerial lines as a means of energy supply to cities, by reasons of its low environmental impact and irrelevance to weather conditions.…”