Integration of Unmanned Technologies into Logistics Problems

The paper considers the integration of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs, drones) into last-mile delivery. Key differences between drones and conventional road transport (speed, near-straight trajectories, payload and range constraints, etc.) and their impact on delivery strategies are discussed. A generalized mathematical model of an integrated truck--drone delivery system is proposed, allowing one truck to launch drone(s) to serve a subset of customers. The model accounts for limited drone range and payload, different speeds of aerial and ground transport, and operational constraints (e.g., return requirement). A comparative experiment for three scenarios (truck only, drones only, and hybrid truck+drone) shows that under favorable conditions drones can significantly reduce completion time due to parallel operation. The conditions under which drones are most beneficial and when conventional truck delivery dominates are highlighted.