Scheduling of unmanned aerial vehicles for supply chain networks

• Main Author: Nagarkar Anay Shriniwas
• Other Authors: Ong Yew Soon
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2014
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Computer science and engineering::Computing methodologies::Artificial intelligence
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/59259
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

This report has been written with the aim of providing the reader with an overview of the author’s work and learning experience during completion of the Final Year Project at the School of Computer Engineering at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. The objective of this report is to give the reader a detailed description and simulation of the author’s work in the scheduling of unmanned aerial vehicles in supply chain networks. The growth of online shopping and e-commerce in the past decade has made a lot of changes in the supply chain and logistics end-user network as companies try to get products to the customers in the fastest and most hassle free way. Customers nowadays enjoy the luxury of being able to get whatever they want at the click of a button, without leaving the comfort of their house. Operational performance is extremely important in improving customer satisfaction. The use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) or drones for package delivery is a revolutionary idea that can change the way the logistics networks work drastically. It would be able to provide with better logistical efficiency as well as promote service quality and better the customer experience. This project uses the Capacitated Vehicle Routing Problem to find a solution to the scheduling of unmanned aerial vehicles. It aims to simulate such a working system and find the most optimum and low cost path from the depot to the destination nodes, keeping in mind various constraints that are faced by the vehicles and the network. This report describes testing of the results of the experiment as well as an analysis of the results. Finally, it also attempts to provide a conclusion and a recommendation for the improvement of the solution. The entire project has been developed using the C# programming language.