sustainability

Article
Sizing of the Drone Delivery Fleet Considering
Energy Autonomy
Asma Troudi 1, *, Sid-Ali Addouche 1 , Sofiene Dellagi 2 and Abderrahman El Mhamedi 1
1 QUARTZ Laboratory EA 7393, IUT of Montreuil- Paris8 University, 93100 Montreuil, France;
s.addouche@iut.univ-paris8.fr (S.-A.A.); a.elmhamedi@iut.univ-paris8.fr (A.E.M.)
2 LGIPM, UFR MIM -Lorraine University, 57070 Lorraine, France; sofiene.dellagi@univ-lorraine.fr
* Correspondence: a.troudi@iut.univ-paris8.fr; Tel.: +33-148-703-741




Received: 31 July 2018; Accepted: 13 September 2018; Published: 19 September 2018


Abstract: One of the most innovative solutions treated in the literature in order to reduce
the environmental impact of urban parcel delivery logistics is the use of drones for delivery on
the last kilometer. Consequently, nowadays, the primary challenge is essentially related to the drones’
fleet sizing according to its means of support for the urban delivery of parcels. In this paper, we
will discuss the issue of dimensioning from a forecast of deliveries of an urban perimeter, the size of
the fleet, the stock of battery to dispose of and the strategy of battery charging. We will present an
analytical model expressing the proposed problem of the optimal drones’ delivery mission taking into
account the issues of autonomy and energy consumption related to the drone’s technical specification.
According to the developed analytical model, two optimization policies will be proposed. The first
policy consists of planning missions under reducing distance. The second policy tries to make a
compromise between the distance and the number of drones. A case study will be presented in order
to compare the two policies based on the overall cost of a plan. The main objective of the study is to
create a decision-making tool for the design of a drone fleet in the case of forecast deliveries over a
time horizon under operational constraints.

Keywords: sustainable delivery; parcel delivery; drone delivery; fleet dimensioning; drone autonomy;
energy consumption

1. Introduction and Literature Review

1.1. The Last Mile Delivery: New Challenges

As a final ring in the chain distribution logistics, last mile delivery represents a significant
challenge with the expanding of e-commerce. E-commerce activities boost companies to modernize
20 their transportation service. Hence, delivery services are increasing due to the just-in-time
management. In 2014, e-commerce reached $1.9 trillion [1]. As a consequence, new express delivery
services have appeared such as: same-day delivery, one-hour or two-hour delivery, which are backed
by a high level of urbanization. The express service offers day and time-definite transit [2] and
is essentially destined for the business-to-business (B2B) segment. Moreover, the express service
has expanded to business-to-customer (B2C). We count about 382 million express parcels delivered
in 2012 [3].
E-commerce represents the key to a successful urban delivery market especially when 54% of
the world population lives in urban areas [1]. As such, improving this sector and offering a delivery
service with high quality seem the main challenges that the pioneer companies of e-commerce like
Amazon or Google are facing. These companies are endeavoring to be closer to their customers and
to adapt their service to the client’s behavior. As an example, Amazon has over 10 million Amazon

Sustainability 2018, 10, 3344; doi:10.3390/su10093344 www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability

Sustainability 2018, 10, 3344 2 of 17

Prime Members [4], and they propose a new delivery format for same-day or two-hour delivery.
The new delivery service requires rapidity and customer satisfaction to meet the just-in-time demands.
However, urban transportation can face many problems related to delivery area [5] or route traffic.
These constraints represent major obstacles in urban transportation activities.
In the literature, we find many studies that propose solutions to overcome many obstacles related
to urban delivery. Oliveira et al. [6] focused on bicycles, tricycles and light commercial vehicles as
attractive delivery alternatives to reduce accessibility issues faced by the trucks in the urban area due
to some road restrictions. Other studies have focused on the energy efficiency for last mile delivery.
In fact, taking the energy constraint into consideration is very important, especially in urban area that
are impacted by pollution and congestion issues, as developed in the paper of Bányai et al. [7]. In the
same vein, the paper of Luigi et al. [8] sheds light on externalities’ cost reduction as an innovative
strategy in last mile delivery sector. The authors concentrated on the factors with a high potential
of externalities’ cost reduction. One of those factors is new vehicles. Electric or hybrid vehicles are
highly-regarded in supporting sustainable evolution in urban areas. However, the autonomy constraint
and infrastructure network limit larger exploitation. Indeed, these vehicles yield to traffic congestion
and parking zone constraints. Morganti et al. [9] showed through their study, in France and Germany,
that alternative parcel deliveries are in continual growth with the evolution of e-commerce. According
to them, pick-up points’ networks are developing and increasing the number of successful deliveries
the first time. Zhang et al. [10] treated another delivery transportation means and structure using
cargo bicycles and pick-up points. The article showed that delivering parcels with cargo bikes reduces
delivery cost and pollution. It is important to note, however, that to reroute parcels, the customer
should move toward the pick-up point. Iwan et al. [11] presented another delivery alternative, which
consists of using parcel lockers, as they have an interesting potential if used as a delivery location.
This delivery location is available 24 h for the customer, but also involves customers displacements.
Zhou et al. [12] proposed simultaneous home delivery and customers’ pick-up to be used in the
context of online shopping. This solution may help to overcome the problem of the customer’s
mobility. Nevertheless, this delivery/pick-up solution is restricted by the vehicle capacity. Those
studies identified multiple transportation means and delivery infrastructures as an alternative to
enhance urban delivery and satisfy customers’ needs. However, each of those alternatives has its own
limit (autonomy, congestion impact, additional customers’ displacement, partial availability, etc).
Customers expect their parcels to be delivered quickly and tend to avoid displacing to collect them.
For these reasons, companies delivering to individuals are experimenting with new delivery services
using drones as a means of transportation [4,13,14]. In fact, exploring the use of drones for commercial
applications is the result of their successful usage in military application given that drones (also
called UAV (Unmanned Aircraft Vehicle)) do not need a pilot and do not have congestion constraints
that affect their functioning. Accordingly, customers do not need to move compared to the way
they do when it comes to other delivery services (pick-up point or parcel lockers). In addition, this
transportation solution overcomes road restriction constraints. These arguments are encouraging
drone designers to consider using them for various public applications (As an example, drones are
already used as a transportation means for health services [15]. Besides, Haidari et al. [16] showed
that the use of drones to transport vaccines increased their availability with minimum cost.). The use
of drones has seen an incessant progress from its use in the military field to its use for scientific and
civilian purposes. The paper of Watts et al. [17] highlighted the transition of the drone from military to
civilian uses. In addition, during the last decade, parcel deliveries have been developed, as well as
the civilian use of UAV. The combination of these two aspects creates a new domain, which the same
leaders of parcel delivery or e-commerce have started to test and explore. We can cite for example
Amazon [4] or DHL [18], which are testing these delivery services through drones. Drone delivery
may overcome the difficulties that commercial activities have with one-day or same-hour delivery in
order to meet the high availability level of expectation and ensure an economic advantage, making
this form of delivery more and more appealing. Managing a fleet of drones, in the context of urban
Sustainability 2018, 10, 3344 3 of 17

delivery, requires the application of routing problem models to ensure the different delivery missions.
These methods take into account the exploitation constraints and the technical characteristics related
to the drones.
In order to manage the different missions of the drone fleet, the routing problem should be solved.
In the literature, this problem is categorized as VRP (Vehicle Routing Problem), and many studies
discuss VRP related to drones in civilian applications. In addition, the capacity of the UAVs and
the time windows of the delivery are also considered to be constraints that should be addressed.
Combining all of those constraints is called the CVRPTWproblem. This issue was treated by many
studies [19–24]. For example, Figliozzi [19] focused on the problem of congestion in urban area,
especially the vehicle speed variation. Other studies are available and have focused on UAVs’ routing,
but in the military context. For example, Shetty et al. [25] organized target assignment and the path
of a fleet of Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicles (UCAVs). Russel and Lamont [26] treated a problem
of UAV routing with a genetic algorithm to schedule routing as dynamic routing, which depends
on fast adaptation to respect flight regulation in changing routes. In another case of the application
of UAVs in military use, Savuran et al. proposed a route optimization method for carrier-launched
UAVs [27]. For the public use and in the search and rescue domain, Kurdi et al. [28] treated the task
allocation problem of multiple UAV with a bio-inspired algorithm. Boone et al. [29] were interested
in Multiple TSP (MTSP) involving many UAVs with a new clustering approach. In a paper focusing
on UAV missions, Mathew et al. [30] discussed task scheduling and patch planning for cooperating
heterogeneous, autonomous vehicles (UAV and UGV) in a context of urban delivery. Recent papers
showed an interest in the delivery with the drone. These studies highlight a tandem truck and drone
transport for parcel deliveries [31–33]. They proposed multiple approaches to solve this problem as
a mixed integer linear programming problem or heuristics. Sawadsitang et al. [34] presented a new
framework of cooperative supplier for a drone delivery fleet. The Table 1 regrouped those works and
included others that treated the issue of drone routing in both civilian and military applications with
different routing formulations.

Table 1. Various formulation of UAV problems.

Paper Military Use Civilian Use Formulation

Russell et al., 2005 X GVR
Shetty et al., 2008 X mTSP
Kurdi et al., 2016 X Multi-UAV task allocation
Murray et al., 2015 X FSTSP
Agatz et al., 2015 X TSP-D
Ha et al., 2015 X Column Generation
Boone et al., 2015 X X MTSP
Mathew et al., 2015 X HDP/MWDP
Savuran et al., 2015 X VRP
Sawadsitang et al., 2018 x MIP + merge-and-split algorithm

1.2. Motivation and Target Contribution

This paper, which is based on the work of Troudi et al. [35], presents a configuration of a drone
operator that delivers parcels with drones. In this context, we are describing the delivery process of
the drone delivery activities. This process helps to understand how the drone operator manages the
parcels’ delivery process, as presented in Figure 1.
After the reception of the parcels, the operator programs through a CVRP-TW (Capacitated
Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Windows) the different missions to perform. Then, the operator
assigns UAVs from the available fleet: a drone that belongs to the available fleet is a drone that can
perform missions. Once the loading task is done, the operator selects a runway to start the mission.
Figure 1 represents the different possible statuses of the UAV fleet and the condition changes of each
fleet status. The active fleet regroups all the UAV already inspected, and after every mission, each UAV
Sustainability 2018, 10, 3344 4 of 17

will be in a standby status for its inspection and control. When a UAV starts its mission, it is considered
as an active vehicle.

Figure 1. Presentation of delivery process in a context of drone delivery application.

Through the logistics analysis approach discussed in [35], the authors focused on the importance of
analyzing the activity in order to support the evolution of the fleet with an appropriate logistics support
system. The approach is based on the standard of logistics support analysis MIL-STD-1388-1A [36]
and the extension of the same tasks in this analysis in the post-production phase. In fact, in order to
implement an appropriate support system for a drone delivery fleet, we should determine the system
dimensioning and its evolution as a function of various parameters like delivery time, the number of
customers to deliver to, etc. In addition, the modification of equipment may have an impact on the
functional capacity of the system and, as a consequence, may result in the change of the mission plan.
Through this analysis, we conclude that, in order to update the logistics support of a drone fleet,
we should study the impact of every modification in the operation management and the dimension of
the support system instantaneously. These types of services require a high level of availability and an
economic advantage to make them appealing.
Our primary purpose is to manage a park of a large fleet of drones, which is ready to deliver
parcels to costumers. The majority of researchers have focused on military UAVs or ground package
delivery with a routing problem formulation. However, in this work, we intend to focus on modeling
the routing problem in a package delivery context with civilian UAVs.
Modeling the drone parcel delivery fleet with VRP helps to solve the sizing the fleet problem.
Taking into consideration the autonomy that characterizes drones is primordial. In addition, the
sizing model is based on the battery charging policy. With different objectives, we will help the drone
operator to identify their impact on some sustainability indicators like energy consumption or the
number of used batteries.
The next section shows our sizing concept and the analytical model using the VRP formulation.
Section 3 includes the result of the analytical model and the impact of different sizing objectives
explained in Section 2.

2. Vehicle Routing Problem Approach for Drone Fleet Sizing

The drone delivery problem has an outstanding potential in terms of scientific development
(Table 1). VRP, Vehicle Routing Problem.
In the parcel delivery sector, studies identified two ways to deliver parcels: only with a
drone [29,30] or by combining a truck and a drone [31–33] (in this case, we consider the drone delivery
as a complementary service). In addition, we noticed that all those papers found that the drone can
carry only one parcel and did not take into account the energy consumption. As a consequence, our
contribution in this section consists of proposing a new formulation for a drone delivery problem,
Capacitated Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Windows (CVRPTW): multiple parcels to carry for
each drone with adding the battery’s energy constraint.
Sustainability 2018, 10, 3344 5 of 17

With an analytical model, we propose to size the drone fleet and establish the mission plan, which
takes into consideration the energy consumption for and determines the number of the batteries,
explained in Figure 2. The different objectives are introduced according to a defined battery charging
policy. In this model, we opt for a full battery charging policy: every active drone has a full battery
before every mission. It is also worth mentioning that a part of this model was introduced in a previous
work [37].

Parcel capacity
-Mission
planning
Parcel address -Mission duration
Mission calculate: CVRP-TW -Mission energy
consumption
Battery capacity - Number of
used batteries

Time window

Fleet management

Figure 2. Sizing fleet concept. CVRP-TW, Capacitated Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Windows.

2.1. Assumptions and Parameters

In order to model the proposed problem analytically, we establish the following hypotheses:

• each point i represents a command to deliver;

• the maximum payload is unique for all the fleet;
• the same UAV could do more than one mission per day;
• the service time τ is the same for each client;
• every mission has a drone with fully-charged battery.

We consider a network N comprising a set of vertices E p : {0, 1, i, j, · · · , C, C + 1} and a set of

arcs A, which interconnects the different vertices. C is the number of customers (or parcels to deliver).
The vertices 0 and C + 1, in E p , represent the depot. C is the number of addresses associated with the
different parcels. The set Ec regroups all the parcels to supply with Ec = E p \{0, C + 1}. Each parcel is
allocated to one address i and supplied by one UAV k. In this configuration, we have a homogenous
fleet of UAVs Ev with K the UAVs’ number. This fleet is able to do M missions, E f : {1, 2, n, m, . . . , M }.
For our model, we introduce the following parameters and decision variable.
Parameters:
α, β, γ: integer coefficients between [0, 1].
dij : distance between addresses i and j.
qi : parcel’s mass for address i.
Qmaxk : maximum charge carried by drone k.
cijkm : transport time between the vertices i and j using UAV k during mission m.
τikm : the service time for parcel i supplied by UAV k during mission m.
ei : the earliest time to serve address i
li : the latest time to serve address i
T: the allowed flight duration for a drone
Ak : autonomy of UAV k
Sustainability 2018, 10, 3344 6 of 17

Decision variables:
Xijkm : binary variable; Xijkm = 1 if parcel j will be supplied after parcel i by UAV k in mission m,
and Xijkm = 0 otherwise.
yk : binary variable; yk = 1 when drone k is used, or yk = 0 otherwise.
Dikm : the arrival time to address i with UAV k during mission m
θnm : binary variable; θmn = 1 if mission m is before mission n, and θmn = 0 if mission m is after mission
n.
zijkn : the charge carried by the drone k between i and j.

2.2. Mathematical Model

In this part, it is imperative to remind that the proposed model respects the charging battery
strategy that we propose: 100% battery for each mission. This means that, whatever is the rest of the
battery capacity after a mission, the battery should be charged to 100% of its capacity for every mission.
The drone operator should provide the sufficient battery items.
Through an analytical model, our objective consists of minimizing simultaneously the total
distance resulting from served parcels, the total used drones and the total batteries used during these
missions, in Equation (1).
The analytical model is presented below:

C +1 C +1 K M K C K M
Min : α ∑ ∑ ∑ ∑ Xijkm dij + β ∑ yk + γ ∑ ∑ ∑ X0jkm (1)
i j k m k j k m

K C +1
∑∑ Xijkm ≤ 1, ∀ j ∈ Ec , i 6= j, ∀ m ∈ E f (2)
k =1 i =0

C +1 C +1
∑ ∑ qi Xijkm ≤ Qmaxk , ∀k ∈ Ev , ∀m ∈ E f , i 6= j (3)
i =0 j =0

Constraint (2) ensures that one parcel (designed by vertex i) is supplied by only one UAV k.
Constraint (3) indicates that the sum of the parcels’ weights carried by one UAV k does not exceed its
maximum capacity Qmaxk .

C C
∑ Xijkm = ∑ Xjikm , ∀ j ∈ Ec , ∀ k ∈ Ev ∀ m ∈ Ef (4)
i =0 i =0

C C
∑ X0jkm = ∑ XjC+1km , ∀ k ∈ Ev ∀ ∈ E f (5)
j =1 j =1

Constraints (4) and (5) eliminate sub-tours and guarantee that in every vertex, expect Vertices 0
and C + 1, there is one entry and one exit.

C +1 C +1
∑ ∑ (cij + τi )Xijkm ≤ T, ∀ k ∈ Ev ∀ m ∈ E f (6)
i =0 j =0

ei ≤ Dikm ≤ li , ∀ i ∈ E p , ∀ k ∈ Ev ∀ m ∈ E f (7)

( Dikm + ((cij + τi ) Xijkm )) ≤ D jkm + T (1 − Xijkm ),

(8)
∀ i, j ∈ E p withi 6= j∀ k ∈ Ev ∀ m ∈ E f
DC+1km ≤ DC+1kn + 2T (1 − θnm ), ∀ m, n ∈ E f , ∀ k ∈ Ev (9)

DC+1kn ≤ DC+1km + 2T (θnm ), ∀ m, n ∈ E f , ∀ k ∈ Ev (10)

Sustainability 2018, 10, 3344 7 of 17

With Constraint (6), the time required to realize a route must be lower than the maximum duration
allowed to fly T per mission. Constraint (7) indicates that the arrival time to parcel address i must be
within its time window [ei, li ] for each vertex i, and Constraint (8) indicates that the sum of the arrival
time in i, service time τi and the travel time between i and j is at least equal to the arrival time to
address j (the address served after i). To avoid a different UAV arriving at the same time to the depot,
we add two constraints, (9) and (10). These constraints avoid the simultaneous arrival of the same
UAV k. For this reason, we use the decision variable θnm to determine if mission n is before mission m
and, as a consequence, the arrival time to the depot (C + 1) DC+1kn .

X0jkm ≤ yk , ∀ k ∈ Ev , m ∈ E f , j ∈ Ec (11)

C M
yk ≤ ∑ ∑ X0jkm , ∀ k ∈ Ev (12)
j m

Constraints (11) and (12) ensure that the decision variable yk (which indicates if the drone k is
used or not) is positive and must not exceed the sum of missions performed by drone k indicated by
the sum of the departure arcs X0jkm . They impact essentially the objective function in order to reduce
the fleet size.
C C +1 C +1
∑ zijkm − ∑ z jlkm = q j ∑ X jhkm , ∀ j ∈ Ec , k ∈ Ev , m ∈ E f (13)
i l =1 h =1

zijkm ≤ Xijkm ∗ ( Qmax + 1), ∀i, j ∈ Ec k ∈ Ev , m ∈ E f (14)

zijkm ≥ 0, ∀ i, j ∈ Ec k ∈ Ev , m ∈ E f (15)

zi(C+1)m = 0 , ∀ i ∈ Ec , k ∈ Ev , m ∈ E f (16)

To calculate the energy consumption during the mission, we should determine the cumulative
load transported by the drone. We introduce a decision variable zijkn that calculates the cumulative
charge that the drone transports between address i and address j.
When the drone visits address i, it delivers the parcel weighted qi , as explained through
Constraint (13). As a consequence, the load decreases during the mission, and the drone returns
to the depot empty (16).
We make sure that the cumulative charge z is higher than zero (when we have a mission, we have
a mandatory minimum of one parcel to deliver) and less than the maximum weight allowed for the
drone Qmax, Equations (13)–(15).
The decision variable z helps us to determine the required energy to consume during a mission as
shown in Constraint (17).

C C +1 C C +1
λ[( ∑ ∑ zijkm dij ) + ( ∑ ∑ mdrone dij Xijkm )] ≤ Ak ∗ 0.8, ∀ i ∈ Ec , k ∈ Ev , m ∈ E f (17)
i =0 j =1 i =1 j =1

The origin of the expression related to Constraint (17) comes from the following expression
according to [19,38]:
(m p + mv ) ϑ ∗ g
+p (18)
(η r )
This expression is an approximation of the power consumption in kW for a drone.
This formulation highlights four parameters related to the UAV: the payload m p represented by
different parcels that the UAV can carry, the UAV speed ϑ in km/h, the gravity g, the lift-to-drag
ratio r and the power transfer efficiency for motor and propeller η; the consumption of the rest of the
electrical equipment in the vehicle is insignificant in our study. The constant part of this formula is
replaced by λ.
Sustainability 2018, 10, 3344 8 of 17

In the next section, we introduce the analysis realized from the analytical model with the drone
MD4-1000 of Microdrones. We divide the objective function (1) into three sub-functions to highlight
the different targets. This division treats the impact of the different sub-functions in the total of the
traveled distance, energy consumption, fleet size and the battery set size.

• minimize the distance with [α = 1, β = 0, γ = 0]

• minimize the number of used drones [α = 0, β = 1, γ = 0]
• minimize the number of used batteries [α = 0, β = 0, γ = 1]

3. Case Study: MD4-1000 Drone Fleet

3.1. The Instances Bound

In this part, we plan to set up the instances related to our analysis. Through this, we want to
define the limit of numerical study. We will base our analysis on MD4-1000 technical data illustrated
in Table 2 and computer data as inputs for customers’ address, parcel weight, time windows, etc.

Table 2. Technical parameters of the drone MD4-1000.

Parameter Value
Speed (m/s) 13
Range (km) 1
Structure mass (kg) 3.35
Maximal take-off mass (kg) 5.55
Maximal loaded mass (kg) 1.2
Battery 22.2 V, 6S2P 13.Ah LiPo
Endurance (min) 70

The distances:
Distances are managed randomly between each customer and the repository.
Therefore, we have a diagonal matrix ( X, X ), where dij = d ji with dii = 0.
Referring to the laws that regulate the use of drones, the range of a drone must not exceed one
kilometer, which means that customers should be within a radius of one kilometer. Our distances vary
in the following interval: [0, 1 km].
From the technical characteristics of the MD4-1000 drone of the company Microdrones, we opt to
apply the rule flying 80%. This rule summarizes that during each flight, the drone must consume only
80% of its autonomy.
According to the characteristics, the endurance of the battery is 70 min, and with the rule of 80%,
the maximum flight time is 56 min. With an average speed of 13m/s, a drone can fly 43 km empty
for 56 min.
This duration represents the maximum period of a clear mission.
We chose to use the average speed to make an approximation between the speed of climb and the
cruising speed.
Indeed, this approximation comes to simplify the speed variation during the flight. Through the
previously explained configuration, we can deduce that the maximum distance between two clients is
2 km. Using the maximum distance traveled empty, we can deduce at this point that a drone can visit
20 empty customers.
Time parameters:
Based on the shortest day of the year and referring to the regulation, the total flight duration
allowed is around 6 h. We can, at this stage, determine the maximum number of missions. The drone
can perform empty during a day: six empty mission per drone and per day.
Sustainability 2018, 10, 3344 9 of 17

In this analysis, we take the same time window for both customers and the deposit window.
We suppose that the delivery service is performed during the day. However, the model presented
below can consider, without any modification, different time windows, adding consequently more
constraints, yet making the model more realistic.
The capacity of the drone:
By default, each drone can use a battery for each mission performed. The maximum number of
batteries that could be on the site must respect the following formula with K is the number of the
drones and Mk is performed missions by one drone during one day:

nbr batteriesmaxi = K ∗ Mk (19)

For the md4-1000 drone model, the payload is 1.2 kg. This is the maximum capacity a drone could
carry. The mass of the drone and the vacuum battery is 3.35 kg. During a mission, a drone could serve
at least one client, whose capacity of charge can vary between [0, 1.2 ]kg.

C
∑ mi + 3.35 ≤ 5.55 kg, ∀ i ∈ Ec , k ∈ Ev , m ∈ E f (20)
i =1

This Equation (20) came to, in addition to Equation (3), supervise the loaded parcels. The most
limited case is that the drone delivers to one customer with a 1.2-kg package during a mission.
The number of drones:
The number of drones made available must ensure the delivery to all customers without exception.
From the limit case, customers choose the delivery slots. This case is present in several sites like
making medical appointments or reprogramming the delivery of parcels at home. The number of
drones is based on the number of customers divided by six.

3.2. Numerical Results and Discussions

Here, we developed a program in FICO XPRESS to validate and explore the proposed
mathematical model. We had five sets of [5, 10] customers. We focused on the variation of the
time windows from [0.1, 0.5] h in order to evaluate three different objectives: the fleet size, the traveled
distance and the energy consumption through different objectives shown in Equation (1). Our analysis
highlights three parts of this sizing objective function independently:

• A, the minimization of the traveled distance with [α = 1, β = 0, γ = 0]

• B, the minimization of the number of the drone used with [α = 0, β = 1, γ = 0]
• C, the minimization of the number of the battery used with [α = 0, β = 0, γ = 1]

The analysis will be based on the simulation of each objective and the discussion about the impact
of time windows’ variation in sizing the fleet, determining the number of the batteries that the operator
should have.

3.2.1. The Impact of the Time Window with the Traveled Distance Minimization (Case A: [α = 1, β = 0
and γ = 0])
In this part of the analysis, we want to determine the impact of the time windows in the traveled
distance performed by the fleet of drones to deliver parcels during a day.
Through the simulation of different scenarios related to the different time windows, we concluded
that the traveled distance decreases when the time windows increases.
In fact, during short time windows, the operator has to use the maximum of the drone to deliver
parcels. As a consequence, the traveled distance is important, as well as the number of performed
missions, the number of used batteries and also the global quantity of consumed energy.
Sustainability 2018, 10, 3344 10 of 17

Starting from a certain value of a time window, the traveled distance and the energy consumption
value have a stability phase with constant values. This value represents a minimum limit that the fleet
of drones can have to deliver to a defined number of customers.
As shown in Figure 3, the evolution of the traveled distance and the energy consumption are
correlated. It reflects the link between traveled distance and the energy. In fact, the energy formulation
is proportional to the traveled distance and the mass loaded (Equations (16) and (17)). The expansion
of those two parameters together impacts at the same time the energy consumed by drones in the
delivery missions.
We conclude that delivering in a short time windows requires an important number of batteries
in accordance with the battery charging strategy setup: 100% charge for each battery by a drone and
by a mission. This analysis helps the drone operator to provide a minimum of the number of drones
and how many batteries he/she should have at his/her disposal.

12

10

batteries-10C
batteries-9C
8 batteries-8C
batteries-7C
batteries -6C
6 batteries-5C
fleet-10C
fleet-9C
fleet-8C
4
fleet-7C
fleet -5C
fleet -6C
2

0
Time Windows (h) C: customers

(a)

14,000

12,000

10,000
c10
C9
Distance (m)

8000
C8
C7
6000
C6
C5
4000

2000

C: customers
-
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6
Time Windows (h)

(b)

Figure 3. Cont.
Sustainability 2018, 10, 3344 11 of 17

350,000

300,000

250,000

Energy (w) 200,000 10C

9C
8C
150,000
7C
6C
100,000 5C

50,000

-
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6
Time Windows (h)
C: customers

(c)

Figure 3. Traveled distance minimization: the impact of the time windows on the fleet size, traveled
distance and energy consumption. (a) Fleet and batteries’ size; (b) traveled distance; and (c) energy
consumption.

3.2.2. The Impact of the Time Window with Fleet’s Size Minimization (Case B: [α = 0, β = 1 and γ = 0])

In Case B, we focus principally on the minimization of drones to deliver a to set of customers in a

defined time window. This time window is unique for the delivery operator and all the customers.
Counter to the previous simulation, the traveled distance and the energy consumption do not have the
same evolution as in Case A.
Since the objective is only to minimize the fleet size, the distance, as well as the energy do not
decrease and stabilize as represented in Figure 4.
Minimizing the fleet of the drone does not automatically mean the minimization of the number of
battery sets for the energy consumed to deliver customers.
In fact, the minimization of the fleet size forced the different drones to perform many missions.
Thus, the number of used batteries will be more important than in Case A.

12

10
batteries-10C
batteries-9C
8 batteries-8C
batteries-7C
batteries -6C
6
batteries-5C
fleet-10C
fleet-9C
4
fleet-8C
fleet-7C
fleet -6C
2
fleet -5C

0
Time Windows (h)
C: customers

(a)

Figure 4. Cont.
Sustainability 2018, 10, 3344 12 of 17

16,000

14,000

12,000
10C

10,000 9C

Distance (m)
C8
8000
C6

6000 C5

C7
4000

2000

-
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6
Time Windows (h) C: customers

(b)

350,000

300,000

250,000

8C
200,000
Energy (W)

7C
6C
150,000 5C
9C
100,000 10C

50,000

-
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6
Time windows (h) C: customers

(c)

Figure 4. Fleet size minimization: the impact of the time windows in the fleet, batteries’ sizing,
traveled distance and energy consumption. (a) Fleet and batteries’ size; (b) traveled distance; and
(c) energy consumption.

3.2.3. The Impact of the Time Window with Batteries’ Size Minimization (Case C: [α = 0, β = 0 and
γ = 1])
In this part of the simulation, we are targeting to reduce the number of batteries needed to perform
the delivery missions.
In this scenario, minimizing distance or drones is not a priority. According to the battery charging
strategy, batteries are linked to the minimization of the number of missions to perform.
In this step, the operator will have to deliver to a maximum of customers by a mission in order to
reduce the performed missions and consequently used batteries.
We noticed through the results (see Figure 5) that the number of batteries needed may exceed
the fleet’s size. As an example: to deliver in 30 min to five customers, the operator should have,
at a minimum, one drone and three batteries. These requirements respect the defined charging
strategy previously mentioned (each drone should have a 100% charged battery before every mission).
In addition, we remarked that minimizing the battery set does not impact the minimization of the
energy consumption. Thereby, missions should deliver to a maximum of customers, which increases
the loaded charge per drone and the traveled distance (see Equations (16) and (17)).
Sustainability 2018, 10, 3344 13 of 17

12

10
batteries-10C
batteries-9C
8 batteries-8C
batteries-7C
batteries -6C
Size 6 batteries-5C
fleet-10C
fleet-9C
4 fleet-8C
fleet-7C
fleet -6C
2 fleet -5C

0 C: customers
Time Windows

(a)

16,000

14,000

12,000

10,000
10C
Distance (m)

9C
8000
8C
7C
6000
6C
5C
4000

2000

-
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6
Time windows (h) C: customers

(b)

350,000

300,000

250,000

9C
Energy (W)

200,000
10C
8C
150,000
7C
6C
100,000 5C

50,000

-
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6
Time Windows (h) C: customers

(c)

Figure 5. Battery set minimization: the impact of the time windows in the fleet, batteries’ sizing,
traveled distance and energy consumption. (a) Fleet and batteries’ size; (b) traveled distance; and
(c) energy consumption.
Sustainability 2018, 10, 3344 14 of 17

3.2.4. Classification of the Different Sizing Objectives

After analyzing the three cases, we classified them based on their impact on different indicators:
traveled distance, fleet size, energy consumption and battery set size. We defined a ranking scale from
1–3 to determine the impact of each case: 3 means that the impact is important, while 1 means that the
impact is minor. As an example, Case B has the longest traveled distance compared to Cases C and A,
while Case A has the smallest energy consumption. Table 3 summarizes this classification.
Case A shows that, by minimizing the traveled distance, the energy consumption is reduced
compared to the other cases, while Case B shows that, by reducing the fleet size, the energy
consumption is at its highest value. While reducing the fleet size may be advantageous in the short
term, especially at the beginning of the activity, the operator will have a significant cost related to
energy consumption and the large size of the battery set in the long term. In addition, new issues will
arise if Case B is chosen: high frequency for the recycling and purchase of batteries.
The classification approach helps the drone operator to decide on the cases that should be kept in
order to handle sustainable issues like energy consumption or limiting the number of batteries used.

Table 3. Classification of the sizing objectives according to sustainability indicators.

Traveled Distance Battery Set Size Energy Consumption

Case A 1 1 1
Case B 3 3 3
Case C 2 2 2

4. Conclusions and Perspectives

The potential that the delivery with drones for the last kilometer is developing encourages
investors to establish a new form of delivery. For this reason, in this paper, we have presented a
sizing problem related to civilian drone delivery activity in an urban area. Treating this new issue will
eventually help investors to better promote their activities.
We have also presented an analytical model, which resolves a capacity delivery problem with
a time window constraint. The integration of an energetic formulation represents the particularity
of this model, and based on it, the drone operator can determine the quantity of needed energy to
provide together with the number of batteries to use.
The model is based on three different objectives joined together: the minimization of the distance,
the number of drones and the number of batteries used. This model is based on a defined battery
strategy that we propose: 100% of battery capacity for each mission performed by a drone. According
to this strategy, the drone operator tries to minimize the three objectives in order to reduce as much as
possible the cost. To highlight the impact of these parts, we proposed to divide our analysis into three
cases focusing on each objective separately.
The first Case A shows that the minimization of the traveled distance as a function of the time
window decreases the fleet size, while the batteries’ size remains important. The energy consumption,
as well as the traveled distance, has a stabilization phase, which represents the minimum requirements.
In the second Case B, we chose to reduce the number of drones. This option does not especially
decrease the traveled distance or the energy consumption. Besides, the number of needed batteries is
still important compared to the first case for the same time window delivery. We have many missions
per drone with a maximum of customers to visit. As a consequence, the operator charges many sets of
batteries, and the traveled distance is no longer reduced.
The last Case C aims at minimizing only the number of used batteries. According to the charging
policy, every mission requires one fully-charged battery. Therefore, during one mission, the drone visits
a maximum of customers. The traveled distance and the energy consumption have approximately the
same evolution as the first case of the analysis.
Sustainability 2018, 10, 3344 15 of 17

Through these different simulations, the drone operator can evaluate his/her fleet and battery
sizes and the necessary energy consumption to deliver a defined set of customers during a defined
time window.
Once all the different cases were analyzed, we presented a classification approach to evaluate
which case was more advantageous in terms of energy consumption or also in terms of the number of
batteries used. This approach helps to show the impact of each objective and guide the operator to
choose his/her goals to resolve sustainable exigencies.
For future works, addressing a balance between the three different objectives seems to be
interesting especially in terms of costs. Comparing the charging strategy with other strategies will
help the operator to choose the adequate way to charge the batteries and if the allocation of batteries
should be reviewed to release a minimum charging task. In addition, using real data will help to have
a more realistic cost evaluation.

Author Contributions: Conceptualization, A.T., S.-A.A., S.D. and A.E.M. Formal analysis, A.T. and S.-A.A.
Methodology, A.T. and S.-A.A. Resources, A.E.M. Software, A.T. Supervision, S.-A.A., S.D. and A.E.M.
Visualization, A.T. Writing, original draft, A.T. Writing, review and editing, S.-A.A. and S.D.
Funding: This research received no external funding.
Conflicts of Interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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