Age of Automated Drones in Supply Chain & Logistics
Published on : Saturday 15-08-2020
Amartya Gupta on drones in supply chain and logistics, and the evolution of drone tech before arriving at this stage.
Drones are unmanned aerial vehicles that can be used in a wide variety of use-cases. One such use-case for drones is in supply chain and logistics. Over the past couple of years, there has been an accelerated development of hardware and software that has fuelled the widespread adoption of drones in different business applications. When it comes to drone logistics, the first thing that comes to mind is Amazon, because of their PrimeAir service that is yet to be fully operational. But there are many companies, other than Amazon, that are successfully doing delivery operations using drones for almost a decade; for example, Zipline is a US-based company who are specialised in medical delivery using drones. Currently, they are very much active in Ghana and Rwanda, and as of May 2019, 65% of all deliveries of blood in Rwanda outside the national capital were done through Zipline
Evolution of delivery drones
Drones are no longer confined to just hobby toys or war machines. Modern drones are capable of being commercially relevant and can perform complex tasks like last-mile deliveries and counting inventory in warehouses.
Here are some important milestones that the drone industry has gone through before arriving at the present state:
1. The first commercial permit for drones was issued by the US Federal Aviation Administration in 2006, which lifted some of the limitations imposed on the recreational use of drones.
2. Parrot, a French company, was the first to introduce a ready-to-fly drone called the Parrot AR in 2010. The company sold about half a million units and won the 2010 CES Innovations award for Electronic Gaming Hardware.
3. In 2013, Amazon released a concept video about drone delivery for their e-commerce store. They later said that they will turn this concept into reality within 5 years. But the wait is still on.
4. DJI emerged as the leader among consumer and commercial drone makers and in 2016, launched the Phantom 4 model with AI and computer vision that allowed the drone to avoid obstacles. This ushered the beginning of smart drones that can be programmed to navigate in difficult environments like indoors without the help of GPS.
A sustainable way to provide a better last-mile delivery experience has been a topic of interest for the last couple of years. Considering the advantages of drone technology, people were quick to explore drones for last-mile delivery, since 50% of a logistic cost can be attributed to the last mile activities 2 . With the current advancement in AI and computer vision technology, people are using drones up in the supply chain in indoor applications like inventory counting inside large warehouses.
Understanding a drone delivery system
A drone delivery system 3 refers to a supply chain where drones are used for last-mile delivery with minimum human interference, leveraging smart automation, and AI-based features. (See illustration).
Such systems are an amalgamation of complex hardware and software, and generally include the following components:
Drone Hardware: This refers to the actual drones and accompanying hardware that will be used for delivery. Users can build a fleet of both off-the-shelf drones and custom drones made using open-source software stacks like PX4 and Ardupilot.
Mentioned below are some popular drones that can potentially be used for delivery purposes and the links to their spec sheet:
1. DJI M600 Pro 4
2. DJI M210 V2 5
3. DJI M300 RTK [New] 6
4. Gaia 160MP-Heavy Lift Drone 7
5. D130 X8 Titan Version Combo 8
6. Foxtech Great Shark 330 VTOL 9
7. Impossible Areospace US-1 Performance Aircraft 10
There are companies like Zipline, Wing, etc., that have developed their own drones to suit their specific needs. Fleet Management Software: It is a software solution that connects everything together; drones, ground-based hardware, and third-party integration. FlytNow is one such cloud-based software solution that provides a unified dashboard to control and manage a fleet of drones along with other benefits.
In addition to the above features, FlytNow also provides the following advantages:
1. Drone control over a 4G/LTE/5G network.
2. Live-video streaming from all connected drones on to the dashboard and share them with different stakeholders.
3. Role-based access to the system.
4. Supports both off-the-shelf drones and custom drones based on PX4 and Ardupilot.
5. Supports the integration with third-party applications. It has native support for Airmap (provides airspace information) and Dronelogbook (records flight data).
6. Provides different dashboards for operator, dispatcher, and receiver.
7. It can be integrated with ground-based hardware like DiaB.
8. The enterprise version comes with advanced AI features like object detection, collision avoidance, and precision landing. These capabilities are very important for delivery operations.
On-board Software: It is a critical piece of software that is installed on a single-board computer and attached to a drone. It helps the drone to communicate with the fleet management software. FlytNow has its own on-board software that allows drones to communicate over the mobile network and in addition to that, it provides features like:
1. Autonomous Precision Landing or Hover (FlytDock)
2. Collision Avoidance (FlytCAS)
3. Electro-mechanical gripper control for package pick and drop
4. Electro-mechanical pulley control for releasing a package from a height.
Drone-in-a-Box (DiaB) Hardware: These are ground-based enclosures that house a drone, keeping it charged, and make sure that the drone is ready to launch when required. By working in conjunction with the fleet management software, a DiaB automates the launch and docking process of a drone. Here are the names of few well-known DiaB:
1. Airscort (https://www.airscort.me/)
2. WiPo Wireless Solution (https://www.wipo-wirelesspower.com/)
3. WiBotic (https://www.wibotic.com/)
Advanced Fail-safes: These are safety mechanisms that ensure the safe operation of a drone in the event of malfunctions, and thus ensure the safety of people below the flight path.
UTM Integration: Delivery operations require BVLOS (Beyond Visual Line of Sight) capabilities so drones can fly to faraway locations. For BVLOS flights, it is required by law to follow airspace norms, which is why service providers like Airmap provide interfaces with fleet management systems to share dynamic airspace information so that all regulatory norms can be properly followed.
Drones for managing inventory inside a warehouse
Drones of today are smart; they come with optical and laser-based sensors to map their surroundings. This coupled with AI and ML makes drones capable of indoor autonomous navigation, and thus be deployed to perform tasks such as inventory counting inside a large warehouse or distribution centre.
How drones are redefining warehouse inventory accuracy metrics In the context of a warehouse, cycle count refers to the audit process where all items are counted on a particular day. Here accuracy involves one or more of the following things:
1. The number of items that are present but not counted.
2. Missing items inside the warehouse.
3. Items not found in their expected (correct) location.
Inventory inaccuracy has a direct impact on the warehouse operations and profitability. This is why warehouse managers and stakeholders have to carefully optimize the following:
1. The frequency of wall-to-wall counts.
2. The manpower needed for the inventory counts.
3. The coverage of the cycle counts.
4. The accepted variance of the inventory count process.
5. The opportunity costs associated with frequent inventory counts.
Drone automation for inventory cycle count
Automated drones can do inventory scans much faster and cheaper, with fewer errors. With respect to safety, drones can safely navigate inside a warehouse using state of the art computer vision.
The journey of using drones for inventory count automation starts from a POC (Proof of concept) project that matures into a full-fledged production deployment, that fully replaces manual inventory scans. Of course, the use of drones doesn’t imply the complete elimination of human involvement, rather drones are yet another tool that help minimize errors in the counting process while improving human safety and productivity.
Manual vs Drone based cycle count
Drone-based cycle counting has obvious advantages over manual counting. (See table). One of the major problems with manual cycle counting is traceability. It is difficult to trace an error made during mapping items with their respective location.
Drone-based cycle counting provides full traceability by building a digital twin in which there are pointers to inventory inaccuracies. Here human intervention can be used to make the corrections and use the data generated for better inventory planning.
Drone first approach to inventory counting
A drone first cycle counting approach includes the following steps:
1. Evaluate whether the warehouse is suitable for drone operation.
2. Deploy a software solution like FlytWare to conduct drone operations.
3. Create a charging infrastructure for the drones.
4. Determine the date, time, and frequency of cycle counts.
5. Optimise the speed of the cycle count.
6. Train human personnel to work with drones.
7. Plan and execute drone missions.
8. Perform a review at the end of every cycle count.
Summary
In this article, we learned about drones in supply chain and logistics, and the evolution of drone tech before arriving at this stage. We then understood the components of a drone delivery system and how a software solution like FlytNow can enable such a system. We also delved into the application of drones in inventory counting and how aerial inventory scans can redefine the way warehouses are managed. With the launch of FlytWare software solution, deploying drones inside a warehouse has never been so easy.
References
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zipline_(drone_delivery)
2. https://www.futureagenda.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/FA-Book-Insights-Optimising-last-mile.pdf
3. https://flytnow.com/drone-delivery-system/
4. https://www.dji.com/matrice600-pro/info#specs
5. https://www.dji.com/matrice-200-series-v2/info#specs
6. https://www.dji.com/matrice-300/specs
7. https://www.foxtechfpv.com/gaia-160-mp-heavy-lift-drone-arf-combo.html
8. https://www.foxtechfpv.com/d130-x8-titan.html
9. https://www.foxtechfpv.com/foxtech-great-shark-330-vtol.html
10. https://impossible.aero/meet-us-1/
Amartya Gupta is an experienced digital marketer, currently, working in a drone automation startup called FlytBase. He is skilled in content marketing, SEO, and marketing automation. FlytBase is an enterprise drone automation platform which provides drone agnostic software solutions to deploy fully automated & cloud-connected commercial drones at scale.
