Last-Centimetre Personal Drone Delivery field deployment and user interaction
ABSTRACT
Drones are rapidly becoming an affordable and often faster solution for parcel delivery than terrestrial vehicles. Existing transportation drones and software infrastructures are mostly designed by logistics companies for trained users and dedicated infrastructure, and are to be used for either long range (<150km) or last-mile delivery (<20 km). This paper presents Dronistics, an integrated software and hardware system for last centimetre (<5 km) person-to-person delivery using cargo drones. The system is conceived to be intuitive and intrinsically safe to enable short distance deliveries between inexperienced users. Dronistics is composed of a safe foldable drone (PackDrone) and a web application software to intuitively control and track the drone in real time. In order to assess Dronistics’ user acceptance, we conducted 150 deliveries over one month on the EPFL campus in Switzerland. Here we describe the results of these tests by analysing flight statistics, environmental conditions, and user reactions. Moreover, we also describe technical problems that occurred during flight tests and solutions that could prevent them.
EXISTING SYSTEM :
Recent years have witnessed an exponential rise in interest in delivery drones, and mainly multicopters, due to their capability to effectively overcome obstacles or traffic jams, to rapidly reach remote locations, and to take off and land in cluttered environments. Therefore, logistics companies have started to explore the possibility of using aerial delivery as a faster and more cost-effective alternative to terrestrial transportation . Examples include Amazon.com’s testsof product deliveries to homes directly from warehouses in the United Kingdom, DHL’s mountain deliveries of emergency medical supplies using its Parcelcopter , Alphabet’s burrito deliveries to Australian homes with its Project Wing drones [5], Swiss Post’s experiments with transportation of lab samples between hospitals in Lugano, Switzerland , and Zipline’s transportation of blood from central storehouses to remote hospitals in Africa. All these aerial delivery services are developed for operation by trained employees of logistics companies for business-to-business (B2B) or business-to-client (B2C) operations. Consequently, the software framework used to control and navigate delivery drones is proprietary and is not designed for inexperienced users. In addition, most of the drones are designed for long-distance delivery (around 150 km) or last mile delivery (around 20km). Covering long distances requires bulky platforms that do not allow for personal delivery due to storage and transportation difficulties. Furthermore, take-off and landing spots should be specially prepared and must be located at safe distances from users to prevent contact with dangerous unshielded propellers.Thus, these drones do not deliver directly to people’s hands in the way that mail carriers or courier services often do.
PROPOSED SYSTEM :
In this paper, we present an integrated hardware and software solution for last-centimetre, short-range delivery through which people can exchange goods safely through the air. Items arrive directly to their recipients’ hands without the need of intermediate logistics companies, dedicated infrastructure, or trained operators. This approach could be suitable for person-to-person exchanges within private grounds, such as large governmental or industrial campuses, construction sites, hospitals, or harbours. Additionally, lastcentimetre delivery could be suitable for dispatching parcels vertically, to the top of cranes and scaffoldings, or to the bottom of deep opencast mines. The proposed Dronistics system consists of a safe quadcopter called the Pack Drone and a customizable software framework. The PackDrone has a foldable structure that shields the propellers to ensure people’s safety. Additionally, folding the origami inspired structure significantly reduces its volume, allowing for its easy storage and transportation in small containers.
In parallel, the web based software allows recipients and senders to intuitively control parcel exchanges and monitor flight trajectories in real-time while ensuring flight safety. The literature contains several studies of the societal impact of drones , drone use in the context of governance, ethics, and privacy, growth of the drone market , possibilities of using drones in urban environments , drone efficiency , the economic benefits for last-cm delivery with trucks , and the dangers of falling drones. However, no field studies have yet investigated practical aspects of drone delivery such as the behaviour of inexperienced users when operating delivery drones, the reliability of the hardware and software, and the impact of weather conditions on day-to-day operations. The goal of this paper is to present the results of the deployment of Dronistics on the campus of the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland, focusing on the aforementioned issues of inexperienced user behavior , hardware and software reliability, and the effect of the changing weather conditions on daily operations. We conducted 150 delivery flights between July and August of. This real-life field study was largely successful, but also highlighted critical issues in last cm-delivery that must be addressed in future developments.
CONCLUSION :
This article presents an integrated software and hardware system for last-centimetre drone delivery between people and for business-to-customer services. The results of the flight tests indicate the service’s feasibility, and its positive acceptance, at least a members of a technical research institution. The behavioural analysis of the user interaction, the analysis of the flight data, and the few technical problems point to areas of improvement presented below, which could be useful for future improvements and other drone delivery services. Future work will focus on enhancing user interaction and drone guidance. For instance, we are incorporating a small speaker for voice instructions as a complement to the photo tutorial. These will help recipients to operate the drone when bright sunlight makes it hard to see the screen and will free both hands for retrieving the package. A loud buzzer will be installed to signal the landing and taking off of the drone. Once autonomous flight Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) authorisation is received, the flight altitude will be increased to reduce the noise perceived from the ground. Additionally, other techniques for noise reduction will be studied and implemented in order to improve user acceptance. Furthermore, the guidance, control, and navigation algorithms will be adjusted to achieve smoother flight during take-off and sharp turns. Additional guidance systems must also be considered for take-off and landing between tall structures. Multiple weather stations will be required to more precisely estimate local wind conditions between buildings where strong air tunnels can form and disturb the flight, and additional research in wind-resilient control algorithms is warranted. Further tests of the sender’s behaviour could be conducted to verify the ease of deploying the cage. Despite current autonomous BVLOS flight restrictions in public areas , it is easier to receive authorisation for such flights on private and restricted areas such as campuses of universities or large companies. This study has been the first application of our last-centimetre aerial delivery service. Future implementations of the system may enable new delivery services between small businesses and customers (B2C) and directly between customers. Moreover, aerial deliveries over short range could also cut emissions . Finally, last-centimetre delivery may become an integral part of the “sharing economy” where individuals borrow or rent assets owned by someone else.