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PROPOSED SOLUTION
Our goal is to improve drone delivery security and efficiency in multi-housing communities where "front-door" drone delivery is not feasible
Community Dropbox
We have designed a dropbox that can be installed into existing buildings. Features include a drone landing pad, an automated package sorting mechanism, and lockers with unique key-pad combinations.
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The design of this dropbox can be tailored to the residency. Additional features include the potential for drone charging pad installation as well a custom number of lockers per building needs.
SUBSYSTEMS
Drone Landing Pad
Drone Landing Pad
The landing pad is the primary function for the package being delivered to the dropbox. The landing pad should open when a drone is flown above it, close after the package has been dropped, support the weight of a common delivery drone, and protect the box from malfunctions/impacts from the drone.
Dropbox Location
VALUE PROPOSITION
BASE COST
$1,986.94
The table at left details the cost of a dropbox with only four lockers, or the minimum number of lockers that can be installed
Based on stakeholder interaction, consumers are highly concerned with the safety of themselves and the safety of the package. With this design in place, we are minimizing the opportunity for a drone to come in contact with the customer while providing a safe and secure location for the package to reside. Essentially, this design addresses the concerns of the consumers while making drone-delivery possible to these multi-housing communities.
Clients on the distribution end would also benefit greatly from the implementation of this dropbox, as they are protecting the safety of their drones and minimizing the risk of their drones injuring a pedestrian. The social and monetary costs of a drone-caused injury would be monumental for a business, so by keeping the drone away from people as much as possible, we are minimizing the opportunity for the company to face such charges.
STAKEHOLDER INTERACTION
Interview: Temi Osifodunin
As part of our design phase, we met with Temi Osifodunin, the marketing director at LaMar's Donuts. At the time of the meeting, we were researching a drone system that would allow packages to be dropped safely from the air. During the meeting, we mentioned possibly pursuing the idea of a communal dropbox, and we were able to get Temi’s thoughts on it. He explained that many of the regulations that inhibited drone to door delivery could possibly be overcome with a community dropbox. His input lead us to pursue the dropbox idea, specifically in community living spaces like college campuses and apartment complexes. Furthermore, his company’s current drone design has a rope release system, which dangles about one foot below the bottom of the drone. The larger packages are usually around 2 feet by 2 feet by 1 foot, and when the package is released, is still tied to the rope used to carry the package. His donut boxes are usually packaged together with a large plastic bag, which means the top of the drop box must be approximately one and a half feet above the sorting mechanism. This slightly complicates the design, as the shortest distance from the ramp to the top of the shell is only 1.48 feet if the sorting mechanism starts at the top of the dropbox. To mitigate this problem, the sorting mechanism will be moved a foot down the top of the drop box so it is not possible for any package to get caught on the top of the drop box.
STUDENT SURVEY
To get input from stakeholders within a multi-housing community, we sent out a survey around campus to get feedback from students living in campus dormitories. The survey included questions on whether drone delivery was desirable, where the dropbox should be located, and how soon after delivery someone would pick up the package. Everyone who participated in the survey said they would want drone delivery to be incorporated into the campus mailing system, most people wanted the dropbox to be built into the lobby of dorms, and the majority of participants said they would pick up a package within an hour of it being delivered. Here is the complete survey:
In order to validate the location of the dropbox, we created a survey and sent it out to those living in multi-housing communities. The results gave us insight into public preference as well as how many lockers we needed to include based on locker turnover rate.
SURVEY RESULTS
Through risk analysis, it was determined that the lobby dropbox posed too large of error, so we compromised with a rooftop landing and a top floor package pick-up. Based on the second chart and third chart, we were able to reduce the dropbox to ten lockers, assuming that less than half of the community would use drone delivery right away and that the package would be picked up within the hour.
What hesitations would you have with drone delivery?
