The Case of Medicine Supply in Aveiro, Portugal

The evolution of the urban environment has changed significantly in the last 50 years, and we see considerable investments in urban logistics in order to make urban processes more efficient. This investigation intends to study the situation of urban logistics with the objective to study the current state of this system and analyze what lies ahead in the near future. The unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) has been under investigation in the world of logistics, having been pointed has the next logistic technology. For that reason, we set as an objective, analyze the working process of this aircraft, its capabilities, and its limitations. Based on this information, we intend to implement a scenario of deliveries in an urban environment. This scenario will be in the city of Aveiro and consists on the delivery of medicines into pharmacies located in an urban environment. With this study, we pretend to find the best current and future solution to operate in an urban environment. The study is divided into several studies, starting with an analysis of the literature, and then we carry out the SWOT analysis. Then we implement a delivery route to pharmacies, both for daily delivery and emergency medicines. The analysis is divided into two phases, one where the vehicles would initially start from the current logistical base and another phase, where the logistical base is proposed for a new location, that has been optimized to the delivery route to be carried out. From the various analyzes carried out, we obtain very conclusive results. For routes of significant payload and distance, the UAV is still not able to have great performances, being still preferential the use of a van. However, we verified that for emergency deliveries, the UAV from the new logistics base (L2) would have the best performance, as well as it would be a low cost of implementation. In some results, the performance was close to the van or even better, although it would not be cost effective. For that reason, we foresee a robust competition from the UAV as an emerging technology. It will soon have better capabilities and more competitive prices. The cost reduction of this type of deliveries may soon be possible with the use of UAVs.O meio urbano tem evoluído durante os últimos 50 anos, onde se verificou uma enorme aposta na logística urbana, por forma a tornar as tarefas urbanas mais eficientes e económicas. Esta investigação tem como objeto o estudo da logística urbana e tem como objetivo, aprofundar e estudar a estrutura atual dos sistemas de logística e analisar o que poderá ser o futuro próximo. Atualmente, a maior aposta tecnológica no mundo da logística é a aeronave não tripulada (UAV). Posto isto, tem-se também como objetivo analisar o funcionamento destas aeronaves, nomeadamente, as suas capacidades e limitações. Partindo de um cenário de logística urbana com recurso a UAV’s, pretendemos estudar e comparar o processo de entregas nesse mesmo meio urbano. A implementação do teatro de operações será na cidade de Aveiro e consiste na entrega de medicamentos às farmácias localizadas no meio urbano. Com este estudo tencionasse encontrar a melhor solução atual e prever uma futura que se adeque à operação apresentada. O estudo está dividido em várias partes. Primeiramente, começamos por uma análise da literatura e seguido uma análise SWOT. Por fim, no caso de estudo são implementadas várias rotas de entregas a farmácias, quer para medicamentos de entrega diária, quer de emergência. O sistema de entregas está dividido em duas fases, uma onde inicialmente a partida dos veículos seria feita na atual base de logística e outra onde o veículo parte de uma base logística proposta, que estará otimizada ao percurso de entrega que se pretende realizar. Das várias análises realizadas obtivemos resultados muito conclusivos. Para rotas de grande carga e distância, o UAV não consegue ter grandes desempenhos, sendo ainda preferencial a utilização da uma carrinha. Contudo, verificamos que para entregas de emergência, o UAV teria um melhor desempenho a partir da nova base de logística, e para além disso, o sistema de implementação seria mais barato. Numa análise futura, prevemos uma concorrência muito forte por parte do UAV, visto que em alguns resultados a performance deste é próxima ou melhor do que a carrinha. Sendo uma tecnologia emergente, em breve terá melhores capacidades e preços mais concorrentes. As reduções de custos deste tipo de entregas poderão em breve ser possíveis com a utilização de um UAV

Unmanned Vertical Lift for Medical Equipment Distribution

This report provides a comprehensive methodical design of an autonomous flying vehicle, for the purpose of transporting medical supplies. Current medical supply transportation infrastructure lacks the ability to adequately service the rapidly growing industry, especially in times of crisis. To help solve this issue, this report details the design of an unmanned drone which can carry a fifty-kilogram payload for fifty kilometers, in twenty-eight minutes. The drone is also capable of transporting a fifty-kilogram payload for two hundred kilometers in seventy-five minutes or less, all while flying at an altitude of up to one thousand meters. Since the medical field often involves emergencies, the drone is designed to load and unload the payload quickly. Methods of analysis include the DMAIC approach, which was implored in order to proliferate the design process. TOPSIS analysis and flow simulation were analysis methods used as well. The final design is a VTOL craft, with a rotating wing design which allows the craft to take off and hover like a helicopter, but also fly horizontally like a traditional plane. The final weight of the craft is 198.56 kilograms, excluding the payload. The aircraft is electric and powered via lithium sulfur batteries. The aircraft carries the payload on the underside of the fuselage, via a system of brackets which raise and lower between the landing gear to drop off this payload at its destination autonomously. This design has the potential to completely change the way medical supplies is transported, and in turn increase efficiency in the medical field. While it is still just a design, this craft can be built, refined, and used in the real world with further optimization

Urban Air Mobility Market Study

The Booz Allen Team explored market size and potential barriers to Urban Air Mobility (UAM) by focusing on three potential markets – Airport Shuttle, Air Taxi, and Air Ambulance. We found that the Airport Shuttle and Air Taxi markets are viable, with a significant total available market value in the U.S. of $500 billion, for a fully unconstrained scenario. In this unconstrained best-case scenario, passengers would have the ability to access and fly a UAM at any time, from any location to any destination, without being hindered by constraints such as weather, infrastructure, or traffic volume. Significant legal and regulatory, weather, certification, public perception, and infrastructure constraints exist, which reduce the market potential for these applications to only about 0.5$2.5 billion, in the near term. However, we determined that these constraints can be addressed through ongoing intra-governmental partnerships, government and industry collaboration, strong industry commitment, and existing legal and regulatory enablers. We found that the Air Ambulance market is not a viable market if served by electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) vehicles due to technology constraints but may potentially be viable if a hybrid VTOL aircraft are utilized

Tag Recognition for Quadcopter Drone Movement

Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) drone such as Parrot AR.Drone 2.0 is a flying mobile robot which has been popularly researched for the application of search and rescue mission. In this project, Robot Operating System (ROS), a free open source platform for developing robot control software is used to develop a tag recognition program for drone movement. ROS is popular with mobile robotics application development because sensors data transmission for robot control system analysis will be very handy with the use of ROS nodes and packages once the installation and compilation is done correctly. It is expected that the drone can communicate with a laptop via ROS nodes for sensors data transmission which will be further analyzed and processed for the close-loop control system. The developed program consisting of several packages is aimed to demonstrate the recognition of different tags by the drone which will be transformed into a movement command with respect to the tag recognized; in other words, a visual-based navigation program is developed

Unmanned Vehicle Systems & Operations on Air, Sea, Land

Unmanned Vehicle Systems & Operations On Air, Sea, Land is our fourth textbook in a series covering the world of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) and Counter Unmanned Aircraft Systems (CUAS). (Nichols R. K., 2018) (Nichols R. K., et al., 2019) (Nichols R. , et al., 2020)The authors have expanded their purview beyond UAS / CUAS systems. Our title shows our concern for growth and unique cyber security unmanned vehicle technology and operations for unmanned vehicles in all theaters: Air, Sea and Land – especially maritime cybersecurity and China proliferation issues. Topics include: Information Advances, Remote ID, and Extreme Persistence ISR; Unmanned Aerial Vehicles & How They Can Augment Mesonet Weather Tower Data Collection; Tour de Drones for the Discerning Palate; Underwater Autonomous Navigation & other UUV Advances; Autonomous Maritime Asymmetric Systems; UUV Integrated Autonomous Missions & Drone Management; Principles of Naval Architecture Applied to UUV’s; Unmanned Logistics Operating Safely and Efficiently Across Multiple Domains; Chinese Advances in Stealth UAV Penetration Path Planning in Combat Environment; UAS, the Fourth Amendment and Privacy; UV & Disinformation / Misinformation Channels; Chinese UAS Proliferation along New Silk Road Sea / Land Routes; Automaton, AI, Law, Ethics, Crossing the Machine – Human Barrier and Maritime Cybersecurity.Unmanned Vehicle Systems are an integral part of the US national critical infrastructure The authors have endeavored to bring a breadth and quality of information to the reader that is unparalleled in the unclassified sphere. Unmanned Vehicle (UV) Systems & Operations On Air, Sea, Land discusses state-of-the-art technology / issues facing U.S. UV system researchers / designers / manufacturers / testers. We trust our newest look at Unmanned Vehicles in Air, Sea, and Land will enrich our students and readers understanding of the purview of this wonderful technology we call UV.https://newprairiepress.org/ebooks/1035/thumbnail.jp

Developing 3D Virtual Safety Risk Terrain for UAS Operations in Complex Urban Environments

Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS), an integral part of the Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) vision, are capable of performing a wide spectrum of tasks in urban environments. The societal integration of UAS is a pivotal challenge, as these systems must operate harmoniously within the constraints imposed by regulations and societal concerns. In complex urban environments, UAS safety has been a perennial obstacle to their large-scale deployment. To mitigate UAS safety risk and facilitate risk-aware UAS operations planning, we propose a novel concept called \textit{3D virtual risk terrain}. This concept converts public risk constraints in an urban environment into 3D exclusion zones that UAS operations should avoid to adequately reduce risk to Entities of Value (EoV). To implement the 3D virtual risk terrain, we develop a conditional probability framework that comprehensively integrates most existing basic models for UAS ground risk. To demonstrate the concept, we build risk terrains on a Chicago downtown model and observe their characteristics under different conditions. We believe that the 3D virtual risk terrain has the potential to become a new routine tool for risk-aware UAS operations planning, urban airspace management, and policy development. The same idea can also be extended to other forms of societal impacts, such as noise, privacy, and perceived risk.Comment: 33 pages, 19 figure

System elements required to guarantee the reliability, availability and integrity of decision-making information in a complex airborne autonomous system

Current air traffic management systems are centred on piloted aircraft, in which all the main decisions are made by humans. In the world of autonomous vehicles, there will be a driving need for decisions to be made by the system rather than by humans due to the benefits of more automation such as reducing the likelihood of human error, handling more air traffic in national airspace safely, providing prior warnings of potential conflicts etc. The system will have to decide on courses of action that will have highly safety critical consequences. One way to ensure these decisions are robust is to guarantee that the information being used for the decision is valid and of very high integrity. [Continues.

Drones on the horizon: Transforming Africa’s agriculture

This report provides a contextualized review of drones as a vital precision agriculture-enabling technology and its range of relevant uses for providing detailed and on-demand data in order to enhance decision-making by farmers and hence facilitate much needed support