Case Study of Drone Delivery Reliability for Time-Sensitive Medical Supplies With Stochastic Demand and Meteorological Conditions

Drones are increasingly being utilized to deliver medical supplies, and the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated this trend. arrive quickly by taking more direct paths avoiding ground-based obstructions. However, drones not completely reliable may also experience failures delays. For consumer products, delivery delays an inconvenience, but for some be fatal. This research focused on drone reliability of one particular type supply event: automatic defibrillators out-of-hospital cardiac arrests. A modeling framework was developed analyze with stochastic demands meteorological conditions. Using probability distributions based real data from Portland, OR, quantified failure rates as a function range conditions that included temperature, precipitation, wind. Tradeoffs among reliability, fleet size, population were analyzed.