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Project Sponsor: Team-Initiated
Every day people grow more concerned about their impact on the environment while at the same time ecommerce and door to door delivery services have skyrocketed. With increased demand in these areas, several challenges arise for everyday people to send and receive packages with ease. If someone wishes to drop off something for a friend, they face having to deal with intense road traffic. Individuals will spend their valuable time, energy, and money dealing with their own cars and trucks or the ones of others delivering items to them. Pigeon will provide users with an effortless and guilt-free way to conduct peer to peer package delivery.
Pigeon is a quadcopter that delivers person to person through a smart phone app. The app is similar to an uber app where pickup and drop-off locations are specified. The quadcopter is self-flying and carries a payload box that is openable only by the user.
The prototype covers a 1.6-kilometer (1 mi) range and supports up to a 1-pound payload weight. As a stretch goal, Pigeon will have a sonar system installed to prevent from running into obstacles while flying. Pigeon is made from some existing and also custom-made parts using 3D printing and potentially some metal machining for the custom frame. The drone is controlled using a microcontroller, which is programmed to fly and find its way to the user and will land on a target that the end user specifies. Pigeon will return to a docking station to have its batteries replaced after making deliveries.
The quadcopter delivery mainly focuses on helping the faster delivery of items, compared to the way cars can deliver items. Additionally, it is beneficial in accessing areas that are hard to reach for normal ground transport, and also having less pollution to the environment.
Pigeon can be used by anyone who sends and/or receives deliveries. This is not limited to conventional mailing and shipping goods. In recent years, many people are opting out of owning a car. This ranges from college students in college towns to millennials living in big cities. This also benefits any business that relies on delivery drivers to deliver their goods, because it automates the process for them. Pigeon can also be beneficial for elderly and handicapped people or people who do not wish to leave their house or not able to move around the house for faster and more convenient deliveries.
Most people do not have their own drone, let alone know how to fly one. They mainly rely on ground transport to send and receive goods within a metropolitan area. Rising populations in urban areas do not even own cars. Pigeon introduces drones to the ride sharing and delivery service app community. The timing of deliveries is influenced by traffic density, layouts, and Hyman work rate. Initially, users can use the drone deliveries for transfers between friends and between businesses, using payloads like food delivery. Pigeon provides a prototype for food delivery and reaching unreachable areas as it addresses an issue where traffic and hard to access areas can impact delivery.