An Analysis of Drone Technology's Realistic Impact on the United States Supply Chain
Open Access
Author:
Wozniak, Matthew
Area of Honors:
Industrial Engineering
Degree:
Bachelor of Science
Document Type:
Thesis
Thesis Supervisors:
Paul Griffin, Thesis Supervisor Andris Freivalds, Thesis Honors Advisor
Keywords:
drone technology supply chain opioid epidemic health care naloxone west virginia united states consulting analysis
Abstract:
United States drone technology is not current implemented in commercial scale. Despite public announcements by enterprise corporations in 2013, very few, and arguably no, scaled applications of drone technology operate in the United States today. In this thesis, drone technology and its potential applications are studied. The focus of this study is to examine potential health-related use cases where drone technologies could be deployed to cost effectively address real-world problems and to identify common characteristics that must be in-place for drone deployments to be successful. Ultimately, the goal is to support the acceleration of commercialized drone implementation in the United States. The thesis provides an overview of drone technology, certain aspects of the medical field in the United States, and how both can be combined to affect the lives of Americans. In sum, implementing drone technology to combat the opioid epidemic is a cost-effective, feasible solution that can prevent deaths due to opioid overdose.
