The Flying Warehouse Delivery System: A Quantitative Approach for the Optimal Operation Policy of Airborne Fulfillment Center

In April 2016, Amazon won a patent for a flying warehouse that deploys unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to deliver parcels to customers. In this system, the airborne fulfillment center (AFC) remains or moves at a high altitude, and UAVs are deployed from the AFC to deliver orders to customers. Smaller airships, also known as shuttles, may be used to replenish the AFC with inventory, UAVs, fuel, supplies, and staff. Amazon's AFC delivery system is a novel and challenging system that can convert same-day deliveries into 10 min deliveries and provide a wide range of UAV delivery services for Amazon Prime members. However, to operate the AFC delivery system efficiently, a quantitative operation methodology needs to be developed, which considers the related regulations and consumable replenishment. In this study, mixed-integer linear programming is developed to derive optimal operation schedules for AFC, shuttles, and UAVs simultaneously. The proposed model can be used in real time to address system changes and derive new operation schedules. The effects of system components are analyzed via a numerical experiment to provide managerial guidelines for the implementation of the AFC delivery system. Furthermore, cooperation between the new AFC delivery system and the existing stationary UAV delivery service was investigated. The results demonstrate the possibility of complementary cooperation between the two systems.