Dispatching point selection for a drone-based delivery system operating in a mixed Euclidean–Manhattan grid

Abstract In this paper, we present a drone-based delivery system that assumes to deal with mixed-area, i.e., two areas, one rural and urban, placed side-by-side. the mixed-areas, called EM-grids, distances are measured different metrics, shortest path between destinations concatenates Euclidean Manhattan metrics. Due payload constraints, drone serves single customer at time returning back dispatching point (DP) after each load new parcel for next customer. $$1$$ 1 -Median Euclidean–Manhattan grid Problem ( MEMP ) whose goal is determine drone’s DP position minimizes sum of all locations be served itself. We study on scenarios, in which customers area need (full-grid) another where only subset these must (partial-grid). For full-grid scenario devise optimal approximation algorithms, while partial-grid an algorithm.