Delivery of Medical Supplies to Remote Locations via Unmanned Aerial Vehicles: Approaches, Challenges, and Solutions
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are becoming more important in improving healthcare logistics, in particular due to their cost effectiveness, minimized risk, and versatile operational capabilities. This study explores the deployment of autonomous UAVs to deliver medical supplies to remote areas. Advances in ledger technology, smart contracts, and machine learning have transformed tasks previously managed by human teams or manually controlled UAVs into fully autonomous missions. We present a comprehensive analysis of the challenges and initial solutions vital for the effective use of autonomous UAVs in the delivery of medical supplies. In addition, we propose a machine-learning model to optimize UAV performance for these missions.
Authors
- Meshari Aljohani (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8057-0817)
- Ravi Mukkamala (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6323-9789)
- Stephan Olariu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3776-216X)
Institutions
- Old Dominion University (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Transportation research procedia
- Published
- 2025-01-01
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trpro.2025.03.047
- Citations
- 4
- Primary Topic
- UAV Applications and Optimization
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 19.97