Develop and demonstrate
a multi-stop route optimisation algorithm for the delivery of medicines through drones.
Integrate
a multi-stop route optimisation algorithm for the efficient delivery of medicine using drones. To demonstrate the route optimisation through the implementation of a drone-based multi-stop delivery pilot To assess the technoeconomic viability and market opportunities of the multi-stop drone-based delivery service
OPTIVERY
Rural healthcare centres in the Spanish region of Galicia face serious limitations because of the geographical isolation, as well as limited access and availability of certain medicines. OPTIVERY aims to develop a multi-stop route optimisation algorithm and validate it in a drone-based delivery system for transporting these medications directly to rural healthcare centres, reducing delivery time, costs, and environmental impact in the logistics of medicines transport.
DJI Matrice 350 RTK
3D Drone Routing Algorithm: Generates feasible flight paths between locations, computes 3D routes that consider both terrain elevation and no-fly zones.
Vehicle Routing Optimization for Delivery Sequencing: Determines the optimal sequence in which deliveries should be made, considers all possible combinations of base-to-delivery paths , minimizes the total travel distance while respecting payload capacity and battery autonomy.
Outcomes
Optimisation algorithm: One multi-stop optimisation algorithm capable of optimising routes for time, energy, and to serve the highest number of health centres in one trip.
Medical drone service: An initial MVP for the deployment of a medical drone delivery service for SERGAS.
Initial business plan: Initial business plan discussed with stakeholder to deploy the service.
Challenges Faced
Algorithm: No function to model drone battery consumption, limited experience solving this type of algorithms, the optimization of routes in a 3D space presented significant computational challenges.
Flight trials: Difficult coordination with authorities, lengthy process to get flights approved, weather instability
Impact (Socio-economic & Environmental)
Socio-economic: Techno-economic development, Improved medication accessing rural areas, improved quality of life in Galicia.
Environmental: Efficient resource allocation (Efficient use of time, energy & manpower, Improved operational efficiency), reduction of CO2 emissions (Eliminates emissions from transport from patients to the hospital), air quality improvement (eliminates pollution from road transport, improves health for Galician community).
