Supply chain route modeling with unmanned aerial vehicle segments

Abstract

In an embodiment, a system disclosed herein receives input information relating to an unmanned aerial vehicle, ground delivery assets, and user preferences or configurations for delivery routes. The system processes the inputted information and determines an optimized delivery route that utilizes the unmanned aerial vehicle and the ground delivery assets. In an embodiment, a computer-implemented method, comprises accessing a drone definition table and a drone assignment table of a database system; accessing digitally stored delivery route data specifying a plurality of nodes connected by edges, the nodes being ordered from a starting point to a last node, wherein each of the nodes represents a delivery location, wherein each of the nodes comprises a service attribute specifying ground-only delivery or ground/drone delivery; selecting, from the delivery route data, a particular node having the service attribute specifying ground/drone delivery and that is next in order with respect to the starting point; removing the particular node from the delivery route data; determining a drone flight time associated with a distance, from a preceding node to a subsequent node, with respect to the particular node; based on the drone definition table and the drone assignment table, determining whether the drone flight time exceeds a maximum drone flight time of a particular drone; in response to determining that the drone flight time exceeds the maximum drone flight time, restoring the particular node in the delivery route data; and, otherwise, writing, to one or more sortie tables in the database, one or more sortie records corresponding to a sortie of the particular drone that can occur between the preceding node and the subsequent node; repeating the selecting, removing, determining, restoring, and writing steps for a plurality of other particular nodes in the delivery route data having the service attribute specifying ground/drone delivery.