Sinéad Mitchell, Juliana Steinbach, Tomás Flanagan, Pouyan Ghabezi, Noel Harrison, Simon O’Reilly, Stephen Killian, William Finnegan
{"title":"Evaluating the sustainability of lightweight drones for delivery: towards a suitable methodology for assessment","authors":"Sinéad Mitchell, Juliana Steinbach, Tomás Flanagan, Pouyan Ghabezi, Noel Harrison, Simon O’Reilly, Stephen Killian, William Finnegan","doi":"10.1186/s42252-023-00040-4","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Drone technology is widely available and is rapidly becoming a crucial instrument in the functions of businesses and government agencies worldwide. The demand for delivery services is accelerating particularly since the Covid-19 pandemic. Both companies and customers want these services to be efficient, timely, safe, and sustainable, but these are major challenges. Last-mile delivery by lightweight short-range drones has the potential to address these challenges. However, there is a lack of consistency and transparency in assessing and reporting the sustainability of last-mile delivery services and drones. This paper critically reviews published papers on Life Cycle Assessments of drones to date. The study reveals a lack of comprehensive studies, and a need to examine composite and battery manufacturing developments and provides key considerations for future study development.</p><h3>Graphical Abstract</h3>\n <figure><div><div><div><picture><source><img></source></picture></div></div></div></figure>\n </div>","PeriodicalId":576,"journal":{"name":"Functional Composite Materials","volume":"4 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0000,"publicationDate":"2023-04-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://functionalcompositematerials.springeropen.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s42252-023-00040-4","citationCount":"3","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Functional Composite Materials","FirstCategoryId":"1","ListUrlMain":"https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s42252-023-00040-4","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"","JCRName":"","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 3
Abstract
Drone technology is widely available and is rapidly becoming a crucial instrument in the functions of businesses and government agencies worldwide. The demand for delivery services is accelerating particularly since the Covid-19 pandemic. Both companies and customers want these services to be efficient, timely, safe, and sustainable, but these are major challenges. Last-mile delivery by lightweight short-range drones has the potential to address these challenges. However, there is a lack of consistency and transparency in assessing and reporting the sustainability of last-mile delivery services and drones. This paper critically reviews published papers on Life Cycle Assessments of drones to date. The study reveals a lack of comprehensive studies, and a need to examine composite and battery manufacturing developments and provides key considerations for future study development.