E-Drone: Transforming the Energy Demand of Supply Chains Through Integrated UAV-to-land Logistics for 2030

NCT ID: NCT04990843

Last Updated: 2024-01-11

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: COMPLETED
• Total Enrollment: 24 participants
• Study Classification: OBSERVATIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2021-01-01
• Study Completion Date: 2023-12-31

Brief Summary

Vans are the fastest-growing category of licensed road vehicle in the UK with growing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. The proposed research into how Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and land logistics systems can be combined and managed will provide fundamental new understanding into the impacts of regulation and operating criteria on energy efficiency and costs. Medical logistics could be the first domain to utilise UAVs on a commercial scale, with preliminary analysis on pathology logistics within Southampton indicating that UAVs would significantly reduce CO2 emissions. With the National Health Service (NHS) spending an estimated £2.5 billion annually on pathology logistics and with patient numbers rising, there is a need to re-think how logistics costs could be reduced whilst improving bleed-to-diagnosis times for patients and energy demand.

The research vision is to examine the energy reduction potential of logistics solutions involving UAVs operating alongside sustainable last-mile delivery solutions (cargo cycles and walking porters via micro-consolidation points).

This involves understanding UAV operations in airspace shared with manned aircraft. The project focuses on a case study and trials based around NHS pathology sample transportation in the Solent and Dorset region. The key research objectives are to:

1. Investigate the collective transport and energy impacts of current 'business-as-usual' NHS pathology logistics across the Solent region;

2. Develop new simulation tools to quantify the energy consumption of UAVs and land logistics systems resulting from new types of traffic regulation for shared airspace and the operating requirements of UAVs;

3. Evaluate the impact on air space and energy use of a large scale take-up of UAVs for medical logistics across the Solent region;

4. Understand stakeholder concerns about UAVs;

5. Understand the regulatory and governance needs associated with UAV interventions that will lead to energy benefits in logistics.

Conditions

Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice

Study Design

• Observational Model Type: CASE_ONLY
• Study Time Perspective: PROSPECTIVE

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

• Work Package 1

• Task 1.1: key informants in appropriate job roles, with attention purposefully paid to gender and age balance of participants.
• Task 1.2: Interviews - a purposeful recruitment strategy will seek participants with a range of socio-demographic characteristics. Questionnaire - Prolific (or a similar commercial company) will distribute the questionnaire (n~1000) to achieve a representative sample of the UK population.
• Task 1.3: key informants in appropriate job roles, with attention purposefully paid to gender and age balance of participants.
• Work Package 5

• Stakeholders with an interest in UAV use with a purposeful selection of participants with a range of socio-demographic characteristics.
• Work Package 6 • Anyone interacting with the serious game in dissemination events.

• Minimum Eligible Age: 18 Years
• Maximum Eligible Age: 99 Years
• Eligible Sex: ALL
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Sponsors

University of Southampton

OTHER

Sponsor Role: collaborator

University College, London

OTHER

Sponsor Role: collaborator

University of Leeds

OTHER

Sponsor Role: collaborator

Bournemouth University

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

Responsibility Role: SPONSOR

Principal Investigators

Janet Dickinson, Professor

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Professor in Tourism

Locations

Dorset County Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

Dorchester, Dorset, United Kingdom

University Hospitals Dorset NHS Foundation Trust

Poole, Dorset, United Kingdom

Portsmouth Hospitals University National Health Service Trust

Portsmouth, Hampshire, United Kingdom

University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust

Southampton, Hampshire, United Kingdom

Countries

United Kingdom

Other Identifiers

295372

Identifier Type: OTHER

Identifier Source: secondary_id

EP/V002619/1

Identifier Type: OTHER_GRANT

Identifier Source: secondary_id

RED 11731

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id