Design and Implementation of Smart Delivery Drone

The use of drones for deliveries has become increasingly prevalent. Different sorts of drone technology have been used to build and test various systems. This project is about a drone for delivering products from a source location to another. This system can be utilized for various applications, including online product delivery, postal services, agricultural fields, and even rescue operations in dangerous places.

Primary objectives

· The project's primary objective is to design a drone that can deliver goods to the nearby hubs of the recipient.

· With this project, a drone that can deliver light weight items from one hub to another hub was designed. Which will be helpful, mainly for emergency supplies like emergency documents, medicine, goods, etc.

· To connect the designed drone with mobile application and control it with the application.

· To make sure features like real time location, hub or location selection and return to home will work with designed drone.

Project Block Diagram

Block Diagram of the drone delivery project.

Working Principle

Working principle of the drone shown with flowchart.

Code

Coded using Arduino IDE software.

Important Components

Flight Controller

To create a drone, design the most crucial device is the Flight Controller. We have used Pixhawk flight controller, which have 32-bit CortexM4 ARM high-performance processor. Because the flight controller is a drone's brain, it is considered a crucial material for drone design.

Frame

The frame is what holds your Drone together, whether it's built of Carbon, Wood, Metal, Plastic, or Fiberglass.

Telemetry

Drone telemetry is information about the aircraft and its surroundings that is transmitted to the operator or ground control station (GCS).

Brushless Motor

Your propellers are attached to your drone's motors, which force them to spin and provide thrust, allowing your drone to fly.

GPS

Navigation is the most prevalent application of GPS in UAVs. We have used radio link SE 100 as the sensor. GPS is utilized to determine the position of a UAV and is a key component of most navigation systems.

OLED Display

In the drone we have used a small OLED display the status of the drone.

Ultrasonic Sensor

Ultrasonic sensors send out sound waves, which travel through the air and reverberate off the item before being picked up by the receiver. The whole transit time is then recorded, and the actual distance between the sensor and the object, in this case, the ground or other obstructions, may then be calculated

Arduino Nano

The Arduino Nano has a crystal oscillator with a frequency of 16 MHz. It's utilized to make a clock with a precise frequency by employing a continuous voltage source.

Transmitter

Six-channel computerized radio-controlled (RC) system using the FS-i6X transmitter and FSiA6B receiver with 2.4GHz AFHDS 2A digital proportional operation.

Battery

For this project, we have used 3300 mah Lithium-based battery. Lithium-based batteries are the most widely utilized in unmanned systems

S.W.O.T. Analysis of the Project

SWOT stands for Strength, Weakness, Opportunity, and Threat (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats). Strengths and weaknesses are a company-wide issue over which we have some control and can make changes. It's a framework for assessing a firm's competitive position and developing strategic plans.

Strengths

One of the most significant aspects of a project is its strength. Knowing a project allows you to quickly determine how different it is from other projects. Here are some of the project's strengths.

• Faster emergency services.

In times of emergency, drones can deliver faster than traditional method.

• Cost-effective

In the long term, it is cost effective. Because less vehicle and human interaction would be needed.

• Small Size

Because of its small size, it can go through most places and will also be efficient.

• Good for navigation.

As it can move freely and good for location tracking, it can be used for navigation.

• Less limitation

It is not limited by any roads, boundaries and mostly there is no speed limit. It has very less limitations.

Weaknesses

Every project has some weakness. Our project has also some weakness and here is the given below.

• Operating drones

Operating drones can be challenging as it requires more knowledge about flight control of drones.

• Possibility of job loss

As drones need fewer human interactions, organization will not need a lot of workers. So, there is a possibility of job loss for people.

• Regulations and Legality

As drones have less limitation about speed and maneuvering areas, it will be hard to regulate as compared to vehicles.

Opportunities

In terms of the project, the opportunity is something, which can unlock or otherwise facilitate a positive or positive effect within the project deliverable.

• Transport of Blood, Medicines, and Biologicals

As transportation of these items can be lifesaving. It is a great opportunity.

• Disaster Relief

In the times of disaster, sending relief with drones can help people and also save life.

• For business purposes

Many organizations can use this to deliver goods to customers faster than before.

• Emerging advances in technology

Advancement in technology will further evolve the drone tech as well. So, it will become better as time goes by.

• Surveillance in Difficult Areas

Surveillance in difficult areas will be much easier. As a result of that number of crimes will decrease.

Threats

The threats of the project are given below.

• Safety of the Drone and Public

Safety can be an issue for the public if proper laws about drones are not established.

• Air Traffic Congestion

In the future, if drones become more common in everyday work; air traffic congestion can be problem.

Simulation Model

At first, we have done simulation model and after that hardware implementation model of our project was successfully created.

For implementing a project, simulation is very important part.

First Prototype

Final Prototype

Results Analysis

Location information gathered using GPS module in the simulation.

In the simulation, sonar sensors are used for detecting obstacles. Obstacle detection result can be seen below in the simulation.

Calibration result when Armed in Mission Planner.

App Navigation

For app navigation we have used a mobile application named Mission Maker for Ardupilot. With this app, it is possible to create multiple hubs for the drone to deliver products in the selected hubs. Drone can return to base/home after delivering in all the hubs. Real time location of the drone can be seen because of the app.