Mobile-Controlled Drone Autonomous Delivery System

Collaborators: Brian Krentz, Mayank Kumar, Yixing Liu, KamFai Tsang, Erin Walk, Billie Wei, Ruilin Wen

Harvard-HKUST Summer Research Program 2015

In this summer research program, we were given a drone frame and an open-source hardware controller and tasked with creating a problem statement and solution. This project tasked us to research prior-art applications, perform user research to define technical requirements, and prototype a complete package solution. Inspired by the (then) recent announcement of Amazon Prime Air, we chose to develop a drone delivery system connected to a phone food delivery app.

Over the course of the summer, we surveyed a range of potential users and businesses to identify the key features that would be compelling enough for them to use a drone delivery service. From these surveys and our drone capabilities, we defined a set of technical specifications that our project needed to meet. From there, we divided our roles based on our expertise and got to work.

My responsibilities were primarily with developing the mechanical systems for the drone, while also assisting with the drone hardware and navigation. Over the summer, I developed a mechanism to reliably pick up food containers, safely transport the food, and gently deliver the food onto the ground. I also designed and fabricated a drone chassis to protect the drone electronics. Toward the end of the summer, I also worked on integrating sensors and coding logic for initial object avoidance capabilities. By the end of the summer, we were able to deliver some Hong Kong-style egg tarts to our project advisors!