Team: 28
School: Los Alamos High
Area of Science: Engineering
Proposal: In recent years, the idea of having packages delivered via autonomous drones has become very popular. Continual advancements in computational and physical technology are making this goal easier to achieve each year. The successful implementation of delivery drones could have many benefits. The need for delivery drivers could be eliminated, and deliveries would be much faster. The trillion-dollar company Amazon has already developed UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) that are capable of transporting packages from a warehouse to a nearby location. However, these deliveries would be extremely expensive. Amazon’s current generation of delivery drones cost an estimated $146,000 per unit, and deliveries are expected to cost a whopping $63 per package.
The ultimate goal of this project is to develop a functional delivery drone that is capable of moving a package from one point to another. It should be able to fly to the GPS coordinates of the package, detect it using a camera, and use a robotic mechanism to pick it up. It should then fly to a certain location using GPS coordinates, and gently set down the package. The drone should be able to do all of this autonomously, but the pilot should be able to resume control of the drone at any moment for safety reasons. To create these autonomous functions, a raspberry pi running Python will be used in combination with a hobby-grade flight controller.
Team Members:
Sponsoring Teacher: NA