Solve Your Last-Mile Delivery Issues With Drone Delivery App Development

Delivery drones are basically pilotless aircraft that carry packages to the assigned area. They are equipped with 4 to 8 propellers as well as rechargeable Li-Po batteries for generating thrust. The delivery drones are controlled remotely through a ground-controlled system. The drone delivery app development has enabled the drone operators to control and track multiple flying bots in one go and update the status of the package.

In the traditional logistics industry, road transport used to be its backbone. But as the cities are becoming more congested due to urban settlements, it becomes challenging to reach remote areas where there is no road infrastructure. Thus the logistics industry has started using drones to solve all the problems.

If you are thinking that drones are the new invention in the logistics industry, then you are happily mistaken. This smart technology has been in the delivery business for a long time. Be in pizza delivery or delivering medicines to the customers, the industry has already started opting for this technology. It is quite different in controlling delivery drones as compared to the other drones. The best part of drone delivery is it cuts the cost of human labor and delivers the package to the customers on time.

Ways Of Adopting Drone Delivery

As we have mentioned earlier, the main reason behind the rising demand for drone delivery is to reduce the delivery time of the package. These days many delivery companies are promising to deliver the package within 30 minutes or less, but it is crucial to know that how they adopt as there are various factors like package weight, traveling speed, etc.

• Either they can use drones from the pick-up location around the city so that the drones can cover around 20 kilometers or so.
• They can even use normal delivery trucks from the dispatch centers for drone delivery operations. The drones can further use road-bound navigation to deliver the order to the rural areas.

This is the current way of adopting drone delivery. But loT as well as other technological advancements will soon come up to solve the factors that are affecting its efficiency.

Related read: IoT In Transportation And Logistics- Major Trends Of 2020

Why Go For Drone Delivery App Development?

Here are some ways what we can expect from drone delivery in the logistics industry:

Deliver Products

Companies can use drones to deliver products or objects. They will be delivering the items from the warehouses to the delivery location through programming. In fact, certain e-commerce giants like Amazon have already started using top delivery drones like Wing. On the other hand, supply chain companies use large size drones to deliver bulk materials.

Time Management

By opting for drone delivery, the brands can rather focus on customer service management, order fulfillment, and different other procedures. All these things become easier because this automated device has the ability to deliver the product faster owing to the integration of GPS-based accurate location programs. Not only this but there are fewer chances of error in finding the exact location.

Saves Time

Drone delivery needs huge resources for the brands. It carries the products and delivers them to the designated area through remote-controlled systems. The employees who were earlier involved in product delivery will get more time to work on other operations in the office. On the other hand, birds are the only air traffic that consumes less time as compared to roadway delivery.

Energy Conservation

Delivery drones will help in maintaining staff commitment while delivering commodities. These smart devices enhance the workforce activity for performing other tasks in an efficient way. Furthermore, it eliminates the exhaustion factor because machines can do error-free tasks that can replace manual activities.

Lessens Environmental Pollution

When orders get shipped from the warehouses, it travels through different vehicles which emit carbon dioxide that immensely harms the environment. Whereas delivery drones carry safe energy sources that don’t cause any harm or pollution to the environment. This way you can contribute to saving our mother nature from greenhouse gases.

Accuracy

Delivery drones deliver the products at the doorstep of the customers even more efficiently. Their higher rate of accuracy in delivering the products reduces the chances of delivering the products to the wrong recipients. This way the companies don’t have to bear the additional cost of exchanging.

Promotes e-commerce

In the modern world, people have shifted towards window shopping. Many people orders products through e-commerce websites but there are even some customers who browse the products online but prefer buying them from brick and mortar store. This is because they are still doubtful of the condition of products. Apart from this the products of the window shopping often take time to get delivered. But drone delivery can eliminate this problem too as it can deliver the product on time and that too in good condition.

Safe And Fast Delivery

In drone delivery, the user can set the time of the delivery depending on his or her choice. This way there will be chances of stealing the package or even tampering with it. After the user has set the time, the drone will deliver the package exactly at the given time. Moreover, the customer will be receiving the package in good condition. As we all know that the drones travel through the airway to deliver the package, there will be less traffic and almost zero challenges that can damage deliverables.

Related read: How Does The On-Demand Hyperlocal Delivery Model Work?

Drone delivery undoubtedly has immense benefits but there are even a few challenges that the companies have to face. Lets us go through all the challenges:

Drone Delivery Challenge

While drones have many benefits, the challenges are numerous such as landing a drone in an unknown place or dropping deliverables from the air, and more. Following are some of the challenges faced by the companies:

Expensive Device

Although there are affordable drones available in the market but to provide efficient services, many market players prefer to use drones that range between $50 to $500 depending on the size.

Safety

Drones don’t function well during bad weather conditions. Although they are integrated with visual and weather detecting sensors, there are even some conditions when this autonomous device faces problems. For instance, it becomes risky to operate a drone during lightning and rain which may even result in damaging the product. In such bad weather conditions, there could be chances of crashing or falling.

Lack Of Technical Knowledge

It requires technical knowledge to operate drones. The drone operator should be familiar with all the functionality of the drone. They should go through the user manual and read all the procedures to operate seamlessly. Thus it takes both time and effort to operate the device successfully. 

Security

Delivery drones are featured with GPS and cameras so that they can deliver the products successfully to the given location. The cameras record the property, location as well as person without their consent while receiving their parcel. The corrupt drone may even misuse the recorded information.

Battery Defect

As delivery drones are highly advanced, they need high battery backup. If the drones are not properly charged, the battery may die within a minute. And if the battery runs out while it is on its way, it may fall out of the sky which can damage the entire system. Also, there is a risk of falling on a property or person.

Related read: How To Scale Your Delivery Business Amidst Challenges

Possible Models For Use In Drone Delivery App Development

As we have mentioned above, drones are used in different industries for delivering items on time as well as cost-effective manner. Following are the drone delivery models that are found in the market:

Delivery Made By Drones And Managed By E-Commerce Retailers

E-commerce sellers are looking for drone delivery services for saving costs as well as provide delivery efficiently. The sellers find this model cheaper in managing a fleet of unmanned aerial vehicles as compared to the traditional delivery models. Customers on the other hand are charged low shipping and abandon the card without any doubt. 

Global Logistics Companies Opting For Drone Delivery

The logistics companies and other delivery service providers can use the drone for resolving the pain points of the last-mile delivery. This market is dominated by the leading industry players like DHL, FedEx, and UPS which are holding maximum market share. The companies that have started adopting drone delivery are enjoying fast delivery as well as reduced cost. Not only this but it is also a capital-intensive and labor-intensive market comprising salaries for the pilots, operators, drivers, customer care executives, loading staff as well as administrative workers.

Independent Brands Adopting Drone Delivery

You may even find many start-up companies that are providing drone delivery systems to businesses and customers. You can find Uber for drone services where the customers can book a drone using smartphones. You can even lease a drone by adopting a subscription-based approach.

Drone Delivery App Development: Things To Know About

As mentioned earlier, there are already few e-commerce giants which have already started delivering the products through drones. The drone delivery app development is quite similar to other on-demand delivery app development. But not all companies are providing it. You need to create an environment to grow your business with a unique approach. 

People will always love getting their products delivered with the help of drones. This going for a feature-rich Drone Delivery App Development can help your business in succeeding. There are several delivery businesses to get started with such as food, milk, grocery, alcohol, marijuana, medicine, and others. Drone delivery refers to a moving package from point A to point B with the help of an unmanned aerial vehicle. These UAVs are either remotely controlled by human pilots or are autonomous.

The technology which powers drone delivery tasks needs seamless integration between advanced software and reliable drone hardware which can enable EVLOS/BVLOS Operations. Now let’s have a look at some components which are used in the drone delivery system.

Drone Fleet Management Software

Drone delivery needs a robust fleet management system that will help in planning as well as executing long-range EVLOS/BVLOS flights along with living tracking and drone control over 4G/LTE/5G. It is a cloud-based technology that is used for delivering packages. Delivery businesses can even use custom drones for setting up delivery systems in their location in no time. The Drone Delivery App Development includes a web-based dashboard that helps in managing and controlling each and every task that is associated with the drone delivery business.

• Operator Dashboard: This is a centralized web interface that enables in maintaining all the logistics apps.

• Dispatcher Dashboard: Web-based dashboard for store owners or medical centers for creating delivery requests as well as live tracking. 
• Recipient Dashboard: Mobile and web panel for tracking the drone location and update the delivery status to the customers.

Onboard Drone Software

A drone featured with intelligent onboard software makes this type of advanced device safe. Onboard Drone Software is integrated with FlytOS intelligent modules and sensors along with onboard SBC (Nvidia Jetson Nano, Raspberry Pi 3B+/4, DJI Manifold 2). Following are the functions of this software:

• Avoiding  Collision
• Autonomous Precision Hover or Landing
• Electromechanical gripper control for releasing a package from the height
• Electromechanical gripper control for pick up and drop of the package

Drone-in-a-box (DiaB) Hardware

To make the entire task efficient and autonomous, on the ground and physical components like a docking station, launching systems, and charging pads are needed. Integrating DiaB handles telemetry and remote control in the delivery interface. 

UTM Integration

Airspace and management is a crucial enabler for safe, scalable, beyond visual line of sight or extended visual line of sight enterprise drone programs. This integration with the UTM engine can avoid capabilities related to the airspace, weather information, flying advisories for planning the optimal path by avoiding no-fly zones. Some leading UTM and providers are:

• Attitude Angel
• Airmap
• Unifly
• DigitalSky
• Airpalette

Advanced Fail Safes

Whether you are flying in urban or rural areas, it is important to maintain the safety of the people who are on the ground and expensive drone equipment should be given utmost importance. You never know the emergency situations like bad weather conditions, flight system failure, or immediate advisory from the local aviation authorities may happen anytime. Advanced Fail Safes will allow in defining the delivery route and land the drone in the nearest safe places if such a situation occurs.

Related read: 6 Ways How Technology Can Help Your Delivery Business Grow Leaps And Bounds

Future Of On-Demand Drone Delivery System

IoT will come to the rescue for solving the current problems prevailing in the drone delivery industries that are related to access control, real-time tracking, predictive maintenance, data logging, and peer-to-peer automated deliveries. 

The drones that are carrying the products will collect all the information with the help of sensors. This will again transfer the collected information to the IoT devices which include trip, flight telemetry, geospatial, package condition, and flight data. Businesses on the other hand will be able to control the actions of the drones remotely.

As we have already seen safety is the biggest concern. Through the help of sensors, the drones will keep track of other aerial objects or drones which are on the same route. Thanks to artificial intelligence that drones are even capable to communicate with other drones about their flight activity. This will helps in avoiding flight crashes.

The third challenge which the industry is facing in the defective battery and drones. IoT predictive maintenance can predict the internal problems of the drone and alert the operators about it. This will help in avoiding last-minute failures.

Not only this but also, once the product leaves the warehouse, it enables to auto-locate the position of the package and continues the further operations. This will help the manager to invest their time in other activities.

In a nutshell, IoT is a boon to the drone delivery business. With the help of machine learning and sensors, it sheds light on the valuable data which will be improving the functionality and maintain safety for future trips.

Closing Note

Drones delivering packages is totally a new concept for many people who are associated with the e-commerce world. Though half of the online shoppers are excited about drone delivery, the rest half are anxious. This is because such options are not widely available everywhere. As more e-commerce companies continue to opt for drone delivery options, it will act as a simplified delivery service. 

Our AllRide Delivery experts believe the future of logistics and supply chains will become efficient and quicker with the help of drones. We are dedicatedly working with our team to provide ultimate solutions which can help our clients for streamlining their delivery processes.