Drone-Based Warehouse Inventory Management with IoT for Perishables

Abstract

Perishables are very sensitive to their ambient conditions that essentially determine their remaining shelf-lives. Since a large number of perishables spend a significant amount of time in transit or in warehouse storage, it is of paramount importance to appropriately manage warehouse inventory to reduce wastage due to premature spoilage. We consider the use of drones and object-level RFID tags to automate inventory management in warehouses that handle perishables and compare this with the case where all processes are manually done by humans. These scenarios exemplify digital twins with the use of IoT and drones in a warehouse environment and associated value creation for the customer and service provider. Our results indicate that automation through RFID tags and drones help the operators of automated warehouses as well as the customers of such warehouses.KeywordsDigital twinDronesIoTWarehouse inventory management.