Excellence in Research: Building an Equitable and Sustainable Logistics System in Rural Areas with Drones

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This Excellence in Research (EiR) award supports research to enhance the equity of smart logistics systems in rural areas and to engineer next-generation smart technology to improve farm-to-table food management of microgreen crops. Drone technology offers promise for delivery of needed goods to rural communities, but adoption by commercial operations has been slow due to low population density. Using a systems approach, this project aims to design incentive mechanisms for the integration of drone technology into rural logistics systems that explicitly take equity into consideration. The project will develop a set of tools aimed to quantify, analyze, and thereby enhance the equity of intelligent logistics systems in rural areas. In addition, the project will build research capacity at Morgan State University, a historically black university, and engage graduate students in interdisciplinary research to enhance their academic and professional opportunities. The educational efforts will broaden the participation of underrepresented groups in information science and engineering in alignment with the nation’s efforts to foster a STEM-capable workforce. This project will provide the design foundation for sustainable economic incentive mechanisms to promote equity in the integration of innovative transportation modes, optimal resource allocation, and intelligent multi-level decision-making models. The project will develop mathematical models for maximizing the equity in drone-based logistics systems. An extensive drone delivery cost structure analysis will be constructed with a comprehensive demand study in a representative rural area. This research will also integrate innovative algorithmic techniques to enhance solution efficiency and robustness in intelligent solution approaches. Research findings will form cross-disciplinary research foundations and raise diverse research opportunities, which will also be integrated into course materials and class projects.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.