Annotated Bibliography on Delivery Drones

Khan, R., Tausif, S., & Javed Malik, A. (2019). Consumer acceptance of delivery drones in urban areas. International Journal of Consumer Studies, 43(1), 87-101. https://doi.org/10.1111/ijcs.12487

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There has been a recent shift in consumer patterns in Pakistan due to the growth in the country's young Tech Savvy middle- and high-income earners males with high spending powers and working women who desire spending quality time at home as opposed to going to shopping populations. This shift has led to an increase in the number of large retailers, some of whom, offer online shopping and delivery services. Also, Pakistan consumers are increasingly using the Internet and internet-enabled transactions. These developments mean retailers are now looking for innovative delivery methods (including the use of delivery drones or unmanned aerial vehicles [UAV]) to serve these emerging market segments more efficiently. In contrast, Pakistanis perceive drones negatively and are averse towards commercial delivery UAVs. Despite this, Khan, Tausif, and Javed Malik (2019) in Consumer Acceptance of Delivery Drones in Urban Areas argue that companies can still use drones if they focus on changing Pakistanis sensitivities towards drones.

In their study, a survey of 307 participants from Islamabad and Rawalpindi, Khan et al. tested the impact "privacy concerns, safety concerns, level of criminal activity and the effect on the environment" have on "consumer's acceptance to drone delivery technology" (p. 91). Remarkably, they found that privacy is the only factor that significantly limits the acceptance of delivery drones among Pakistanis. As a result, the study proposes the best practices a retailer needs to introduce the service - strategic integration of "design policies, rules, and regulations regarding drone delivery in the company's internal policy" (p. 98). The retailer must, thus, acquire drones that have "privacy by design and by default" and enact a "data protection framework built into its corporate policy (p. 98)." Additionally, it should limit the amount of private data it collects and endeavors to market drones positively to Pakistanis to improve their perceptions concerning them. For instance, as a CSR policy, retailers may offer medical supplies deliveries to remote areas.

Khan et al. arguments appropriately apply the Theories of Planned Behaviour (TPB) and Theory of Technology Acceptance Model (TTAM). According to TPB, consumers as rational beings receive new consumers' technology depending on its "perceived risks, functional benefits, and its attributes" (p. 89). On its part, TTAM theorizes that the reception relies on whether consumers perceive it is to be useful and easy to use. In Pakistan, privacy is the greatest risk delivery drones pose because the country does not have a privacy protection law or authority - a loophole that for-profit companies can unethically exploit. The glaring shortcoming of this article is its sample population. By surveying the middle- and high-class residents in two cities only, the study represents just a fraction of Pakistan's people. The small sample may result in bias. Future studies incorporating participants from all over Pakistan are required.

Burzichelli, C. D. (2016). Delivery drones: Will Amazon air see the national airspace? Rutgers Computer & Technology Law Journal, 42(1), 162-195. Retrieved from https://www.questia.com/library/journal/1G1-455286510/delivery-drones-will-amazon-air-see-the-national

In recent years, drones have evolved from primitive military delivery devices into versatile tools that public, private, and commercial entities use for varying activities. The advancement in drone technology saw the CEO of Amazon announce the company's Amazon Air plan, which intends to use drone's delivery to fulfill orders of up to five pounds for customers located within a 10-mile radius from fulfillment centers receive their deliveries almost instantly. This plan is momentous given about 86% of orders fall within this category. The company first obstacle is the lack of enough fulfillment centers near many of its customers. While this hurdle could be overcome easily by building more centers, Amazon faced many arduous problems including the limitations of delivery unmanned aircraft systems (UASs) "by current and potential regulations of UASs and the many safety and privacy concern" as Burzichelli, C. D (2016) argues in Delivery Drones: Will Amazon Air See the National Airspace?

Part I of this paper reviews UAVs use of UAVs as Amazon Air's specifically outline in its objective - accessing the National Air System (NAS) regularly. Part II investigates federal laws and how they affect this plan's timeline and goals. In part three, Burzichelli discusses state regulations and assess how current state legislation affects commercial UASs. Part IV and V focus on privacy and safety concerns and recommend actions that Amazon and regulators could implement to address these issues. Burzichelli finalizes the article in Part VI evaluating the possibility of realization of the Amazon Air's plan accompanied by recommendations on how Amazon can improve its chances of accessing the NAS.

Burzichelli arguments are not only stimulating but also convincing as the author aptly cites numerous instances of loopholes in the federal regulation (the FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012) on UASs that limits the opportunities of commercial UASs access to the NAS. Primarily, the author points to the lack of a concrete plan on integrating advances made in the realm of delivery drones. Instead, the advances it provides for are contingent to success in R&D, which pushes Amazon's timeline far from the near future as what it contemplates "has already been accomplished" (p. 170). Burzichelli, suggests that Amazon can easily surmount the other barriers of state regulations and privacy and safety concerns. Since state regulation focus on privacy, the author argues that Amazon could enact data retention rules similar to those covering public UASs. The author argument is well-supported as she gives the practical example of the Utah regulation that restricts law enforcers from "using, copying, or disclosing" data of non-target entities, while also directing them to destroy data the UAVs collect as soon as it is practically possible. Also, courts can solve privacy violations conflicts. Burzichelli proposes that the use of sense and avoid systems in delivery UAVs will solve the safety issue.

Overall, the author's arguments are well supported and founded. The author does not call Amazon Air's plan for delivery drones impractical. Instead, Burzichelli fittingly evaluates the issues that the company and regulatory agencies should address before the plan becomes a reality. The article is, thus, grounded on practicalities of the commercial delivery UAVs, which makes it more credible.

Boysen, N., Briskorn, D., Fedtke, S., & Schwerdfeger, S. (2018). Drone delivery from trucks: Drone scheduling for given truck routes. Networks, 72(4), 506-527. https://doi.org/10.1002/net.21847

Conventional last mile delivery by vans suffers from human inefficiency that makes them costly. They are also a prominent source of adverse congestion, safety, and environmental effects in cities. As a result, retail and delivery companies are examining the use of delivery drones. However, due to their size, drones can only carry small parcels, manage a single delivery at a time before returning to the delivery base, and their limited battery power restricts their coverage range. To overcome these challenges, Boysen, Briskorn, Fedtke, & Schwerdfeger (2018) in their paper Drone Delivery from Trucks: Drone Scheduling for Given Truck Routes propose a novel concept of using UASs launched from trucks.

In this paper, Boysen et al. assume that the issue of the delivery route has been solved and only concern themselves with the scheduling of the UAVs. The paper raises six fundamental problems and provides their complex computations. These versions of these problems depend on the number of UAVs in a given truck and the UAVs operating policies. Boysen et al. present two MIP models with one of them indicating it could solve the scheduling issue by solving delivery instances of up to 100 customers in a few minutes of computational time. Boysen et al. further also propose on how to integrate the drone subproblem into a simple metaheuristic framework, that can help solve the complete problem version that includes the truck's routing.

The overarching issue with this paper is its complexity. However, regardless of its intricacy, the paper argument is compelling. It offers the most feasible solution not only to the problems of having to return to delivery center after a single delivery and that of limited coverage range but also present a better resolution to the problem of insufficient fulfillment centers Burzichelli (2016) argues Amazon Air's plan face.

Overall, this paper is the most relevant of the three articles because it is the most recent one. Also, it deals with a current issue - how to efficiently and effectively actualize commercial delivery UAVs - while Burzichelli (2016) focus on preliminary issues some of which have since been achieved. As for Khan et al. (2019), though their argument is relevant to the people of Pakistan, retailers there already have templates that they can use to surmount the issue of privacy. For instance, regulators and retailers there can refer to the Utah example Burzichelli (2019) gives above.

References

Khan, R., Tausif, S., & Javed Malik, A. (2019). Consumer acceptance of delivery drones in urban areas. International Journal of Consumer Studies, 43(1), 87-101. https://doi.org/10.1111/ijcs.12487

Burzichelli, C. D. (2016). Delivery drones: Will Amazon air see the national airspace? Rutgers Computer & Technology Law Journal, 42(1), 162-195. Retrieved from https://www.questia.com/library/journal/1G1-455286510/delivery-drones-will-amazon-air-see-the-national

Burzichelli, C. D. (2016). Delivery drones: Will Amazon air see the national airspace? Rutgers Computer & Technology Law Journal, 42(1), 162-195. Retrieved from https://www.questia.com/library/journal/1G1-455286510/delivery-drones-will-amazon-air-see-the-national