The coronavirus pandemic has been noticeable not only for the shift from bricks and mortar commerce to e-commerce, but for the dependence of e-commerce retailers on human delivery drivers to fulfill orders.  The army of robotic delivery bots and drones that were supposed to propagate have largely been conspicuous by their absence.

Nonetheless, developments continue in the field, and new research from Stanford argues that drones may benefit from partnering with ground-based vehicles to make e-commerce more traffic friendly.  Their work, which was presented at the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, argues for using ground-based vehicles as a hub to increase the long-haul capacity of the drones, who would deal with the last-mile delivery.

The team developed a framework for routing a fleet of delivery drones via ground transit networks.  In order to save energy and increase the flight range, the drones would be capable of hitching a ride on public transit vehicles, with an algorithm deciding which drones would make which delivery.

Efficient deliveries

The system was tested using a couple of simulations in an area similar to San Francisco and Washington, D.C.  The simulations showed that drones were able to quadruple their effective flight range by hitching onto the bus network, with possible delivery times below one hour in San Francisco and two hours in Washington.

It’s a system that fills the researchers with confidence that while delivery drones and robots have had a minimal impact during the covid lockdowns, they will have a significant impact on the last mile delivery logistics in future.

“Delivery drones are the future,” the researchers say. “By using ground transit judiciously, drones have the potential to provide safe, clean and cost-effective transport.”