Drone-Fleet-Enabled Logistics: A Joint Design of Flight Trajectory and Package Delivery

Abstract

In this work, we focus on a drone-fleet-enabled package delivery scenario, in which multiple drones fly from a start point and cooperatively deliver packages to the ground users in the presence of a number of no-fly zones (NFZs). We first mathematically model the package delivery scenario in a rigorous manner. Then, a package value maximization problem is established to optimize the flight trajectory and package delivery under the constraints of drone load and collision as well as NFZs. The formulated problem is a highly challenging mixed-integer non-convex problem. To facilitate solving it, we transform the formulated problem into an equivalent problem with special structure by using some appropriate transformations, based on which a low-complexity algorithm with favorable performance is developed using the penalty convex–concave procedure method. Finally, numerical results demonstrate the superiority of the proposed solution.

Keywords

• logistics
• drone fleet
• package delivery
• trajectory optimization
• no-fly zone constraints