New technologies, such as Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
(UAVs), are transforming facilities and vehicles into
intelligent systems that will significantly modify logistic deliveries
in any organization. With the appearance of automated
vehicles, drones offer multiple new technological solutions
that might trigger different delivery networks or boost new
delivery services. Differently from the related works, where
a single specific delivery system model is typically addressed,
this paper deals with the use of UAVs for logistic deliveries
focusing on a multi-criteria analysis of trendy drone-based
system architectures. In particular, using the cross-efficiency
Data Envelopment Analysis approach, a comparative analysis
among three different delivery systems is performed: the
classic system based on trucks only, the drone-only system
using a fleet of drones, and the hybrid truck and drone
system combining trucks and drones. The proposed technique
constitutes an effective decision-making tool aimed at helping
delivery companies in selecting the optimal delivery system
architecture according to their specific needs. The effectiveness
of the proposed methodology is shown by a simulation analysis
based on a realistic data case study that pertains to the main
logistic service providers.
