Computational Rationality for Distributed Airborne Delivery Agents

This project develops a system to integrate distributed airbourne delivery vehicles into an end-to-end customer delivery proposition. By doing this we will develop and demonstrate a detailed commercial aviation system model and AI capability building on the Alan Turing Institute's BlueBird family of avaition simulation tools. Our solution will be developed to accomodate fully electric and autonomous Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) with a specific focus on deliveries.

Our solution will build on consortium expertise within "Systemised Airspace Design" (SAD) to understand and evaluate future pre-set "three-dimensional networks" in the sky through which UAVs are expected to operate safely within urban environments. The system will combine future airbourne network representations with comprehensive multi-modal ground-based freight networks to provide optimal routing schedules across the full spectrum of future electric and sustainable delivery modes. As a result, the project will address the integration challenges of new air vehicles into both the aviation system and wider freight & logistics sector.

With a focus on deliveries, the project will explore both optimal network designs and operational routing across these future networks. Using a multitude of simulations, accomodating the sizing and weight characteristics of deliveries and the operational performance constraints of UAVs we will create a system that can optimise deliveries considering the following factors:

* Operational Cost
* Time to serve (customers)
* Energy Use (by fuel type and electrical network need)
* Carbon Emissions and
* Air Quality.

As such the solution will be able to inform approaches to sustainable aviation and critical infrastructure gaps required to ensure sufficient renewable energy infrastructure to power these future systems. Detailed models of operational performance will also help explore new business models in sustainable logistics.