During the course of this project, we have designed a fully autonomous package delivery vehicle. This device is capable of delivering packages from the post office and delivering them to people’s houses while also picking up packages to be delivered to the post office in almost any location.

Problem: The delivery industry is slow, expensive, and inefficient, especially today with more and more people shopping online.

Solution: The STAD (System for Transportation of Autonomous Delivery) is an automatic delivery system that does not require any drivers.

Detailed Solution: Our product is a self driving package delivery truck that gives packages to a drone when it reaches its destination, and then the drone carries the package to the door.  The is an improved system because it is cheaper than human labor, and the truck can drive at night, reducing the impact of delivery trucks (semis, vans, etc.) on traffic. Also, with the proper sensors, the truck’s safety performance would not be reduced at night.

We just found a similar idea created by a delivery company called Amp Holdings. They had the idea to launch a delivery drone from a truck parked close to the house rather than launching drones from a central warehouse far away from the house.

Our final idea is to have a carousel that lifts the packages up to the top of the truck. The drone then grabs the package and flies to the house. There can be more than one carousel to maximize the truck’s storage space. The drone is mounted on a sliding mount so that it can move into position over each carousel.

Delivery Steps: 

1. The STAD gets the packages from the post office

2. The STAD drives to the next house

   1. The carousel is rotated so that the correct package is accessible

   2. The drone is moved into position over the package, ready to be deployed

3. The STAD arrives at the house

   1. The drone is dropped onto the package causing the arm to gram the package

4. The drone flies the package over any obstacles (fences, stairs, people, etc.) to the house

5. The drone releases the package on the porch of the house

6. The drone flies back to the STAD

   1. The drone docks with the STAD

   2. The drone’s battery is replaced with a charged battery

7. The truck leaves the house, repeating the same process from step 2