The impact of civil airspace policies on the viability of adopting autonomous unmanned aerial vehicles in last-mile applications

This study evaluates how various UAV flight policies affect energy consumption and the required charging infrastructure in last-mile parcel delivery applications. International UAV policies are reviewed and subcategorized into nine categories based on their stringency. Assuming autonomous operations of small-size quadrotor UAVs (13 min flight range), an experimentally verified energy model and demand data are used to simulate 3D trajectories of UAV missions in a digital-twin model, simulating last-mile parcel deliveries in Toronto. A novel optimization model is developed to minimize the allocated charging stations. The results show that the maximum and minimum altitude limitations increase the required charging stations by up to 52%. Minimum horizontal clearing distance increases the required charging stations by up to 75%. The results highlight increased cost per parcel delivery associated with policy strictness ranging from $0.078 (lean policies) to $0.086 (strict policies). Overall, the results highlight the need for contextual-based policy solutions.

Automated summary

This study evaluates the impact of UAV flight policies on energy consumption and the required charging infrastructure. The results show that policy strictness increases the demand for charging stations and leads to increased cost per parcel delivery.