Evaluating the effectiveness of drones in emergency situations: a hybrid multi-criteria approach
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/IMDS-01-2021-0064 |
| Published date | 03 November 2021 |
| Date | 03 November 2021 |
| Pages | 302-323 |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Information systems,Data management systems,Knowledge management,Knowledge sharing,Management science & operations,Supply chain management,Supply chain information systems,Logistics,Quality management/systems |
| Author | Justin Zuopeng Zhang,Praveen Ranjan Srivastava,Prajwal Eachempati |
Evaluating the effectiveness of
drones in emergency situations:
a hybrid multi-criteria approach
Justin Zuopeng Zhang
Coggin College of Business, University of North Florida,
Jacksonville, Florida, USA, and
Praveen Ranjan Srivastava and Prajwal Eachempati
Indian Institute of Management Rohtak, Rohtak, India
Abstract
Purpose –The paper aims to build a customized hybrid multi-criteria model to identify the top three utilities of
drones at both personal and community levels for two use cases: firefighting in high-rise buildings and logistic
support.
Design/methodology/approach –A hybrid multi-criterion modelthat integrates fuzzy analyticalhierarchy
process(AHP), Best Worst,fuzzy analytical networkprocess (ANP),fuzzy Decision-MakingTrial and Evaluation
Laboratory(DEMATEL) is used to computethe criteria weights.The weights are validatedby a novel ensemble
ranking techniquefurther whetted by experts at the communityand personal levels to two use cases.
Findings –Drones’fire handling and disaster recovery utilities are the most important to fight fire in high-rise
buildings at both personal and community levels. Similarly, drones’urban planning, municipal works and
infrastructure inspection utilities are the most important for providing logistics support at personal and
community levels.
Originality/value –The paper presents a novel multi-criteria approach, i.e. ensemble ranking, by combining
the criteria ranking of individual methods –fuzzy AHP, Best-Worst, fuzzy ANP and fuzzy DEMATEL –in the
ratio of optimal weights to each technique to generate the consolidated ranking. Domain experts also validate
this ranking for robustness. This paper demonstrates a viable methodology to quantify the utilities of drones
and their capabilities. The proposed model can be recalibrated for different use case scenarios of drones.
Keywords Drones, Fuzzy AHP, Best-Worst, Fuzzy ANP, Fuzzy DEMATEL, Disaster
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
Drones, autonomous or teleoperated flying machines, have been an active area of research for
decades. Drones are unmanned but remotely controlled or piloted vehicles (RPVs). A drone or
unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is believed to have been conceptualized by Abraham Karem
from Baghdad from Israel (Seharwat, 2020). Aerial drones are one of the most powerful new
technologies to accele rate disaster rescue ope rations. Drones natural ly complement
traditional crewed relief operations by ensuring that operations can be conducted safer,
faster and more efficiently (Kahiluoto et al., 2020).
Drones can help in risk assessment, mapping and planning. When individuals, businesses
and communities understand and manage risks and plan effectively, they can reduce overall
damage and losses. The importance of drones and their utilities has been explored in existing
studies; however, the relative importance of each utility has not been mathematically
quantified. For example, the top utilities of drones have not been investigated for personal
and community levels (Hildmann and Kovacs, 2019). Further, the drone utilities may differ
based on the context or use for specific purposes. Finally, existing decision-making systems
have not considered public perceptions about drones and their utility.
Against this backdrop, there is an urgent need to quantify and understand drones’utilities
with respect to their relative importance and analyze their variations in utilities from one use
case to another. This would enable designing customized drone architectures by highlighting
IMDS
123,1
302
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
https://www.emerald.com/insight/0263-5577.htm
Received 27 January 2021
Revised 15 September 2021
Accepted 11 October 2021
Industrial Management & Data
Systems
Vol. 123 No. 1, 2023
pp. 302-323
© Emerald Publishing Limited
0263-5577
DOI 10.1108/IMDS-01-2021-0064
the utility aspect for specific use cases. For instance, a drone used for firefighting in high-rise
buildings should incorporate the safety net in architecture for rescuing. Similarly, a drone for
logistics support needs to include an RFID tag for inventory checking.
To accomplish these purposes, we adopt a hybrid multi-criteria model in this research to
study the multitude of drone applications based on the following two use cases: firefighting in
high-rise buildings and logistics support. Specifically, we identify the top three utilities of
drones used at personal and community levels for these two use cases. Prior research has
identified various utilities of drones in different use cases (Chowdhury et al., 2017). We choose
to focus on these two use cases as they represent the primary uses of drones covering drones’
major utilities in emergencies. Analyzing these two representative cases and identifying the
most important utilities will help the design of customized drone architecture with specialized
functionalities for many other drones’use cases.
In order to accomplish the above research objectives, the paper presents a novel multi-
criteria approach based on ensemble ranking that combines the criteria ranking of individual
methods, including fuzzy AHP, Best-Worst, fuzzy ANP and fuzzy Decision-Making Trial and
Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL), in the ratio of optimal weights to each technique to
generate the consolidated ranking (Mohammadi and Rezaei, 2020). Furthermore, domain
experts also validate this ranking for robustness.
The rest of the paper is structured as follows. First, the theoretical background and
literature review are elucidated in section 2. Next, the research methodology adopted for the
hybrid multi-criteria model is discussed in section 3, followed by the results and discussion in
section 4. Finally, the study’s implications are presented in section 5, and the investigation is
concluded in section 6.
2. Literature review and theoretical background
2.1 Utilities of drones
Prior research has explored the utilities of drones in disaster management (Remko, 2020;
Kahiluoto et al., 2020;Kinra et al., 2020), identifying the following capabilities of drones: fire
detection (Sungheetha and Sharma, 2020), firefighting (Hierbert et al., 2020), urban planning
(Kellermann et al., 2020;Sacco et al., 2020), inspection (Humpe, 2020), municipal work (Sedig
et al., 2020), disaster recovery (Ganazhapa et al., 2020) and emergency response (Papadaki
et al., 2020).
One of the essential utilities of drones is sensing and predicting the occurrence of fires.
Developing sensors and alerts linked to GPS location is essential to detect fires early to save
valuable lives and damage property. An equally important factor after fire detection is the
capability to fight fires in the early stages. This problem persists in high-rise residential
buildings and factories, and people need to be saved for which drones are found to be
successful. Specialized drone architectures like safety net drones are found to be effective in
rescuing people and fighting fires.
Urban planning is the other important utility of drones in countering a disaster.
Mechanisms for pre-planning fire mitigation strategies, fuel loading, defensible features and
modeling can be devised using sensor-enabled drones.
Another critical utility of drones is in road inspections. Detection of potholes in roads,
cracks in bridges, faulty transportation systems and monitoring road and vehicle pathway
conditions can be performed using a 360-degree camera fitted drone system. Similarly,
surveying and assessing properties and assets, including power transmission infrastructure,
communications infrastructure, water, waste containment, treatment and transport
structures, can be accomplished with drones. This helps in alternative transport
mechanisms using drones when conventional transportation modes are blocked.
Drones’
effectiveness in
emergency
situations
303
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