Application of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles in Logistics: A Literature Review

Abstract

The booming development of e-commerce has brought many challenges to the logistics industry. To ensure the sustainability of the logistics industry, the impact of environmental and social sustainability factors on logistics development needs to be considered. Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs)/drones are used in the logistics field because of their flexibility, low cost, environmental protection and energy-saving advantages, which can achieve both economic benefits and social benefits. This paper reviews 36 studies on UAVs applications in logistics from the Web of Science database from the past two years (2021–2022). The selected literature is classified into theoretical models (the traveling salesman problem and other path planning problems), application scenarios (medical safety applications and last-mile delivery problems) and other problems (UAV implementation obstacles, costs, pricing, etc.). Finally, future directions of UAVs are proposed, such as different application scenarios that can be considered and different algorithms that can be combined to optimize paths for UAVs to specific flight environments.