The Prospect and Vision of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles for Logistics
Date Issued
2015
Date
2015
Author(s)
Chen, You-Cheng
Abstract
Since Amazon’s founder and CEO, Jeff Bezos, proposed in 2013 the idea of using unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones, to deliver goods, logistics and tech giants including DHL, S.F. Express, Google, and Taobao have been rolling out new projects in attempt to make logistics by drones a reality. However, the idea of fully automated operation of drones for logistics faces certain challenges. The limited scenarios of application due to the characteristics of today’s drones, along with the safety and reliability issues, make the prospect of drone-logistics less prominent than it first appeared to be. In attempt to help the drones for logistics overcome the challenges, this study examined several difficulties faced in fully automated drones operation and proposed the solutions in chapter 3, including the navigation mechanism on the drones, the flight control on the ground, and the process of a drone directly delivering the package to a person. Also discussed is the business model beyond the traditional B-C model, encompassing the idea of share-economy with a drone-sharing platform, so as to leverage the drones’ high mobility and low capacity. In chapter 4, this study proposed the vision of the fully realized drone-logistics, depicting the scenarios with the VPS – Vision, Position, Scenario cycle, where the business starts from a vision, makes the position, and comes up with a new vision from the scenario. By studying the regulations of the civil aviation industry, this study also proposed the ideas for future regulations for the drones. Finally, this study created the VCC – Value Creation Cycle for drones for logistics, discussing how the proposed regulations and all the venders along the value chain may work out to realize the proposed vision of logistics by drones. On the whole, this study aims at proposing a clear vision for logistics by drones, so as to serve as the strategic blueprint for the businesses that may be interested in this industry.
Subjects
UAV
unmanned aerial vehicles
drones
logistics
delivery
share economy
VPS
VCC
Type
thesis