DRONES FOR EFFICIENT LAST-MILE DELIVERIES

Students Explore the Future with Mega City 2070

As we look to the future, this much is certain: the cities of today will not be the cities of tomorrow. By 2070, many cities will hold massive populations while facing limited energy resources and evolving climate change impacts. To ensure quality of life and wellbeing, buildings, outdoor spaces, and entire neighborhoods must be reimagined sooner rather than later, with civil engineers creating and deploying solutions that keep individuals and communities safe and healthy.

“We need to think now about making designs flexible and adaptable to handle these challenges,” says Associate Professor Pingbo Tang. “If civil engineers don't look at what the climate, population, and energy sources will be in 50 years, what we build will become obsolete very quickly, leading to future expense and waste.”

These considerations are at the forefront of Tang’s Building Information Modeling for Engineering, Construction, and Facility Management graduate course, where this year’s students participated in a pilot program of software called Mega City 2070.

Created by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) based on extensive research, Mega City 2070 immerses users in a realistic 3D model of a city that's home to 50 million people in the year 2070. As students tour this futuristic and interconnected built environment, they can delve into articles, reports, videos, and discussions regarding transportation; construction and materials; energy and utilities; structure and architecture; and water, waste, and environment.

“By observing the systems and structures in this platform, students see the very big challenges that cities with such high populations will face,” says Tang. “Looking at these animated and realistic scenarios helps them visually think through different situations, potential solutions, and what technology will work in a realworld city.”

In Tang’s course, teams of students first spent time exploring Mega City 2070 before selecting and analyzing an infrastructure case study in the city and its related technical challenges. Students then identified opportunities to address those problems using various sensing and computing technologies. a real city. For students, the project showcased the interconnected nature of cities and infrastructure systems. “They learn, if I design this way, that's how it will influence construction. That's how it will influence the operation of the building,” says Tang. “Those experiences prepare students to make decisions with consideration for the bigger picture.”

For example, several teams researched how to apply modular construction and deconstruction techniques to address housing shortages and temporary housing needs. One group created biophilic designs that would bring more light and plant life into workspaces and reduce employee stress. Yet another team proposed multipurpose roofs optimized for drone landings, solar panels, and farming. At the end of the term, each team presented models and simulations of their solutions applied in The course also highlighted the immense value of computing for everything from modeling infrastructure, to collecting information from sensors, to analyzing data to improve performance and inform policy. “Mega City triggers students to ask how civil engineers can use more sophisticated tools to discover, define, and solve problems,” Tang asserts. “We are equipping students to act as a bridge between civil engineering and computer science to benefit our future cities.”

As consumers, we’ve gotten used to the immediacy of deliveries. Order a product one day and have it at your house the next. But, the logistics behind this massive movement of goods—and its environmental impact—mean that better solutions need to be implemented to balance consumer demand and the energy consumption of “last-mile” deliveries. To address this issue, Professor Costa Samaras and PhD candidate Thiago Rodrigues researched what they refer to as “an increase in the demand for last-mile delivery while trying to reduce the environmental impacts of the transportation sector.” Their work, titled “Drone flight data reveal energy and greenhouse gas emissions savings for very small package delivery,” was published in the August issue of Patterns. Rodrigues explains that many companies are exploring using autonomous vehicles to perform last-mile delivery. “We focused on understanding the impacts on the energy consumption and GHG emissions of this transformation in how we deliver packages,” he says. The team learned that both payload mass and total flight duration were the main contributors to the drone’s overall energy consumption. “For small packages with high aggregated value, such as medical supplies and electronics, the quadcopter drones showed a considerably low energy consumption

Drones for Efficient Last-Mile Deliveries

per mile traveled compared to other transportation modes.” Surprisingly, according to Rodrigues, drone speed and wind speeds had little impact on the drone’s overall energy consumption. Rodrigues concluded that for last-mile deliveries, adopting quadcopter drones for small package deliveries could result in substantial energy savings while lessening greenhouse gas emissions. “Drones can have up to 94% lower energy consumption per package than other vehicles.” He adds that the overall amount of emissions reduction depends on the intensity of the electricity grid in an area. “Regions with cleaner electricity would benefit more from adopting drones to transport small packages.”

While the research team determined multiple benefits in utilizing small drones, Rodrigues admits that there are still operational and regulatory challenges that need to be addressed before drone deliveries become a reality. “However, a few drone delivery operations are already being implemented, with medical supplies and even groceries being safely delivered by drones. These operations are leading the way in expanding the use of drones in all last-mile delivery sectors.”

These successful operations may make the prospect of drone delivery more enticing to consumers. Rodrigues believes that people are already receptive to the idea, stating that in a recent study, more than 60% of online customers said they would be willing to pay extra to receive their packages using autonomous delivery robots.

There is also the issue of larger packages, which cannot be delivered by small drones. Rodrigues suggests that electric cargo bicycles and other ground autonomous delivery robots could be an energy-efficient way to get these items to customers.

This study is a major research output of previous research led by Samaras and Professor Sean Qian. Their work contained a comprehensive analysis of how drones, autonomous vehicles, robots, and intelligently managed infrastructure may improve cost and energy efficiency of the first- and lastmile of goods transportation.

CMU Takes First Place at NASA Aeronautics Competition

A CMU team comprised of current MS student Ashima Sharma (BS '22) and other CMU students took first place in the inaugural Gateways to Blue Skies Competition. Their project titled, Sustainability and Connected Autonomy: A New Era for Aviation, presented a climate-friendly airport integration concept.

Sponsored by NASA’s Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate, the Gateways to Blue Skies Competition is an initiative to engage college students in researching climate-friendly technologies and applications that will establish a net-zero emissions future for aviation. The winning team was awarded an opportunity to intern at any of the four NASA Aeronautics Centers.

Wells Named Steinbrenner Institute and Heinz Presidential Fellow Kagdi Named The Higher Education Climate Consortium Fellow

The Steinbrenner Institute for Environmental Education and Research at CMU has selected Albin Wells as a Steinbrenner Research Fellow.

He is researching how glaciers in Alaska are responding to climate change by developing robust approaches rooted in field measurements to improve largescale systematic remote sensing and modeled data products of glaciers. Better insight into the numerous processes driving present-day glacier mass loss in Alaska will enhance projections of future mass loss; this has critical implications for water resources, natural hazards, and sea-level rise. The Higher Education Climate Consortium (HECC) has selected Labdhi Kagdi as one of two fellows to help advance the collaborative Consortium and support its 2022 strategic planning effort.

Kagdi is a PhD student in Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) and received her BE in Environmental Engineering from Lalbhai Dalpatbhai College of Engineering, India.

Kagdi is still working out her research project but is looking at potential green practices across the universities and their carbon emissions over the years.

Recent PhD Theses

MATTHEW BATTIFARANO - System-level Impact and Behavior of Coordinated Vehicle Fleets in Transportation Networks Advisor: Sean Qian

GARRET BLAND - Chemical Fingerprinting for the Detection, Classification, and Transformation of Engineered and Incidental Nanomaterials in Environmental Systems Advisor: Greg Lowry

ANA CACERES - Hydropower Vulnerability in a Changing Climate: Characterizing Future Risks in the Global South Advisor: Paulina Jaramillo (joint EPP) BINGQING CHEN - Towards Safe and Sample-efficient Learning for Autonomous Energy Systems Advisor: Mario Bergés

MINA KARIMI - Bayesian Inference of Poroelastic Properties from Induced Seismicity Data Using an Energy-based Poromechanics Model Advisors: Matteo Pozzi & Kaushik Dayal

SHUO LI - Value of Information and Evolution Prediction for Sequential Infrastructure Management Advisor: Matteo Pozzi ALLANTÉ WHITMORE - Integrating Shared Autonomous Mobility into the U.S. Transportation System: An Equity, Economic, Ethical, and Environmental Assessment Advisor: Costa Samaras (joint EPP)

ZHUORAN ZHANG - Estimating and Mitigating Work Zone Impacts on Crash Risks: Causal Inference with High-granular Observational Data Advisors: Burcu Akinci & Sean Qian

Torres’ Tesla Internship Solidifies Passion for Engineering

Clara Torres is one of the few people in the world who can say they have performed structural analysis on GigaTexas, the Tesla Gigafactory.

Torres spent her summer 2022 internship at the giant campus, analyzing steel structures including platforms, pipe supports, mezzanines and different renovations to existing and new industrial, manufacturing, and office facilities.

She also created design drawings, plans, and schedules using Revit and reviewed shop drawings to reduce/eliminate potential mistakes. “I collaborated with multidisciplinary project teams including mechanical, electrical, piping/plumbing, and architectural to optimize designs, avoid interferences between all the different systems, and to mitigate design changes,” Torres adds.

She learned about the internship opportunity through SHPE (Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers) at Carnegie Mellon. “Last year, I got the opportunity to attend the annual SHPE convention hosted in Orlando, Florida.” While there, Torres waited patiently in line to talk with the representatives from Tesla, who suggested that she would be a good fit for one of the company’s summer internship positions. She followed the application process and was excited to be selected for the program.

Torres says that her education at CEE helped to prepare her for a smooth transition between school and the internship. “CEE showed me how to tackle real-life problems in structural engineering, transportation, geotechnical, and hydraulics. It also helped me to develop teamwork, interpersonal skills, and leadership skills.”

She adds that she used the “exceptional critical thinking skills” gained in the CEE program, which assisted her in solving complex problems in a fastpaced environment. “Time management and prioritization played a very important role [in my work].” A native of Colombia, Torres eagerly joined the Latinos at Tesla community that included people from her home country as well as Mexico, Chile, and Brazil. She also had the opportunity to explore Austin, San Marcos, and San Antonio.

Torres states that her internship experience piqued an interest in exploring the intersection between technology, engineering, and design. She adds that internships are rewarding, challenging, and provide connections that last beyond the summer. “Getting to work with brilliant minds is amazing!”

Hunter Lawrence (BS ’18) has

a fascination for the aesthetics

of roller coasters. She grew

up riding the coasters at

Kennywood Park in Pittsburgh.

And she worked at the park

as a ride operator for two

summers–cementing her

interest in the engineering and

architecture behind wooden

roller coasters.

Mixing Engineering, Architecture, and Wooden Coasters

As a CEE student, Lawrence took the reins of the Roller Coaster StuCo from the graduating individual who’d started it. “I taught it for six semesters. It gave me a reason to keep up with what was happening in the industry—plus, I knew the Public Relations people at Kennywood. They would give the classes tours and let us stay in the park,” she says. Lawrence also brought in guest speakers, including alumnus Brian Ondrey (ECE '95) who co-runs a company that builds control systems for roller coasters.

Lawrence adds that her minor in Architecture provided the connection to wooden coasters. “I’m drawn to them because the structures can be designed in a beautiful way.” She is also more interested in smaller, locally-focused amusement parks like Kennywood.

She began working with Great Coasters International right after graduation. Realizing that the industry was very competitive—especially for such specialized jobs—she networked heavily while still in school and was in the “right place at the right time” when the company was looking for an engineer. “These companies are very small and there are rarely openings. I had considered staying on for the Integrated Masters program but I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to work for Great Coasters.”

She eventually transitioned to a position at The Gravity Group, Great Coasters International’s main competitor. There, she works as an engineer in manufacturing, managing an inventory of parts, inspecting trains, drafting and programming the company's new Engineered Precut Track, and helping to make projects flow smoothly.

Lawrence explains that bringing joy to others is a perk of the job. “Seeing people on the rides—or seeing rides open back up—really makes me feel like I’m doing something that is affecting someone’s day. I feel lucky that I’ve gotten to have these opportunities.”

She adds that CEE helped to pave her path to success, teaching her how to multitask, problem solve, handle stress, and find balance in her life. CEE also showed Lawrence how to become a strong communicator. “Sometimes engineers get lost in the calculation aspect of things. Throughout my years at CEE, the importance of strong communication skills was really emphasized.”

Lawrence mentions that the path to a career in the amusement industry can be bumpy—but is worth it in the end. “I always tell students that you just can’t get down on yourself or feel too disappointed when there aren’t a lot of openings in the industry. A lot of it is luck. You have to have the qualifications and hold out for something to become available.”