UAVs for Business Adoptions in Smart City Environments: Inventory Management System

Abstract

Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-assisted inventory management, used for inventory control within an enterprise with large warehousing and manufacturing systems, is currently common practice. There are many applications for UAVs within an enterprise, but they are generally used in tasks that have high risk connotations to perform activities quickly, such as in the cases of large enterprises that generally require inventory of many products quickly and efficiently connected in a smart city environment. Having an up-to-date inventory as quickly as possible in a smart city environment allows users to have the necessary information to verify the availability of products, reducing waiting times. The use of UAVs systems compared to conventional systems, such as unmanned ground vehicles, has several advantages, including the fact that UAVs have their own cameras and can move independently within the warehouse. This paper proposes the development of a Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition system (SCADA) for the inventory management of the company DHL, using drones. This study evaluates the OPC communication protocols for the virtual environment and the 232 serial connection protocol for the real environment, using LabView and Factory I/O programs. For the development of the system, the use of a drone was evaluated for the recognition of the availability of merchandise with the use of infrared technology incorporated in the drone by means of an Arduino. The appropriate use of communication protocols allowed the necessary information to be obtained for the communication of the LabView and Factory I/O environment in which a virtual environment based on the DHL inventory system is available. The system allowed the development of a SCADA system for the management of inventory monitoring in real time of the availability of goods in the virtual environment, allowing to obtain the necessary information for its integration in a smart city environment.

Risks of Drone Use in Light of Literature Studies

“…As noted in the introduction, drones are currently used for military [ 177 , 178 ] and non-military missions. The scope of their use is increasing every year, so there are publications in the literature on newer and newer drone applications in areas such as: Warehouse operations support [ 179 , 180 ]; Education [ 181 ]; Mobile communications [ 42 , 182 ]. …”

A Review of Collaborative Trajectory Planning for Multiple Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

“…UAV manufacturers and service providers utilize the latest research findings to develop more powerful, intelligent, and collaborative-capable UAV systems. These products and services are widely used in agriculture, forestry, construction, logistics, and security monitoring, helping enterprises to improve operational efficiency, reduce costs, and create new value [126][127][128].…”

Drone Optimization in Factory: Exploring the Minimal Level Vehicle Routing Problem for Efficient Material Distribution

“…The article developed by [16] is the most prominent as a review of the state of the art, they indicate that there are very few applications for the use of drones within the factory, and many studies that are still promising. In the article developed by [17], drones are used for merchandise recognition through infrared technology located in the drone and a data acquisition and control system is developed for the DHL postal company. The article [18] shows the use of drones in security tasks both inside and outside the factory, while the article [19] shows an application of drones for quality inspection in the factory.…”