IoT Techniques and Elements for Drone Package Delivery Networks
critical delivery by road vehicle of drugs or medical equipment . Drones can shorten that time to minutes . Zipline is a good example of a system with success in medical deliveries , making over 7 million deliveries by drone since 2016 [ 11 ]. Drone medical delivery systems are also valuable in the reverse direction , to bring bio samples from the remote clinic to a central lab . Security is key to medical applications , to control access to regulated drugs , or to ensure an unbroken chain of custody for the lab samples .
4.2 FOOD DELIVERY
Another use case is fast food delivery . Restaurants prepare meals and load them onto drones , which fly the food to wherever the recipient is located . The speed of this system will be much faster than traditional road-based food delivery networks like DoorDash , GrubHub or Uber Eats , greatly improving food quality and customer experience .
4.3 MILITARY LOGISTICS
Military logistics is another important use case . A single flight of a mid-size drone with 5kg payload capacity can move about 8 MREs ( Meals Ready to Eat ), 20 units of blood plasma , 5 liters of water or 190 rounds of 7.62mm NATO ammunition to front-line troops , without endangering delivery drivers . Many other use cases in military / government logistics are being explored .
5 DRONE CARGO DELIVERY NETWORK ELEMENTS
5.1 CARGO DRONES
Many companies worldwide manufacture commercial drones , including DJI [ 12 ], Parrot [ 13 ] Skydio [ 14 ] and Wing [ 15 ]. Cargo drones come in several categories , typically organized by maximum takeoff weight .
Table 5-1 shows the categories recognized by the US FAA [ 16 ] ( other jurisdictions have slightly different limits ). The under 250-gram takeoff weight Category 1 has too small a cargo capacity ( typically under 100 g ) to be useful for mainstream cargo deliveries beyond niche applications like replacing lost golf balls on the course or delivering small bottles of medication .
Most mainstream cargo delivery networks will use Category 2 or 3 drones between 250 g and 25 kg maximum takeoff weight , with the ability to transfer 11-25 ft-lbs of kinetic energy ( a measure of their potential to injure people ) with a maximum cargo capacity in the 10 kg ( 22 lb .) range . This is adequate to replace 70 % of the truck-based deliveries done by companies like Amazon and UPS . Heavy lift cargo drones with a takeoff weight over 25 kg are uncommon , but gaining some use in things like construction , ship-shore services , and scientific deliveries .
34 August 2023