PRE Groep1
Go Back to Project Robots Everywhere (0LAUK0)
Welcome to the Home Page of Group1. Our project targets Amazon Drone Delivery and hopes to provide a prospective solution to the final stage of the package delivery process. Here on the Home page you will find weekly updates on what we have done during the past few weeks.
In the top right corner of the main pages you shall see a Quick Links guide. If you are looking for specific information these will get you there quickly and efficiently.
To get a full idea of how the project was setup (ie. Planning, Personal Logs, Meeting Notes etc.) Click on the Project Trajectory links in the Quick Links box.
To get a full idea of how the project developed, start the journey with the link below. At the bottom left of each wiki page will be a "NEXT" and "BACK" link leading you throughout the wiki.
Journey through the Project Pages of the wiki starts HERE
Welcome
Leden
- Luc Bams
- Frederique Kroos
- Karen Schmit
- Tim Treurniet
Weekly Update
Week 1
This week we decided on a topic: Amazon Prime Air Delivery System. We plan to analyze the techniques behind drone navigation & how the packages are delivered, compare and contrast this system to the current delivery system by truck, assess safety, propose possible future scenarios and their feasibility, and see how this influences enterprise, society and individuals. If it is all possible...that we will have to see.
Important Tasks &/or deadlines: Presentation Monday about subject,objectives & approach. Create a tentative plan.
Feedback
The class and professors gave us some good food for thought: Find a more concrete question we want to answer. Overall good thoughts and questions about "drone delivery", but what is the core of what we want to analyze/find out. Also form a more concrete approach ie. where are you going to find sources, from whom, what kind, etc.
Week 2
Upon having our meeting on Thursday we came to the conclusion that the sources required vs the sources available to do such an analysis on the feasibility of commercial drone delivery were a little limited. We came back to the original idea to design a mailbox for such deliveries under the assumption that drone package delivery will be there in the future. See Problem Definition.
Furthermore this week's tasks include Background Research to help use create a list of requirements & constraints for the design:
Research includes:
- how package deliveries are currently done for apartment complexes,
- possible laws and regulations on flying heights of drones
- package sorting systems (automated and non)
- safety concerns in regards to drones and package delivery
Anything found that can contribute to a more accurate design will also be stated.
We hope that in week 3 we can have a list of requirements & brainstorm a design.
File:Presentation- Week 2.pdf - 15/09
Feedback:
After presenting on Monday, there were still some questions on what specifically our "research question" was. Also several tips were provided to tweak our planning such as: Build Plan and Test Plan should finish at the same time so you know what you're building to test.
Fortunately, we did get the green light on our project, so we may start. As long as we tweak what is necessary by next week.
Week 3
Tasks this week: Brainstorm ideas/concepts for our mailbox, Tweak planning & research question so that it is complete.
Having our Brainstorm session on Thursday gave us a lot of ideas to dwell on and elaborate on. Tasks and concepts were divided and need to be done before Monday.See Notulen. The goal of this week was to get several concept ideas done so that we can start building and testing some of the most feasible ones in the allotted time left.
We have also come to discover that none of us really know how to do a real design project so we are looking up Design Methodologies and contacting one of the ID professors to see how to handle this project further. Hopefully this will clean up our planning to make the project go even more smooth.
In regards to tweaking our research question, we have described the future scenario of drone delivery and we know what we want to do to contribute to this "dream" (create mailbox(es)). We are hoping that through developing and elaborating the concepts brainstormed this week will we get further insight into what we actually want to find out and contribute to in order to specify our research question.
Mentor Meeting Expectations: Have several concepts ready to present. Have the wiki fully printed out so he can see what we have done. Have tasks for the coming week planned out.
Feedback
There was some good feedback received from our mentor. We worked really hard. It is evident what our end goal is going to be for this project. For the remainder of this project we are focusing on the technical aspects of how these individually selected components will work and how they can come together as a system. We are going to try and construct 1 component & have all of them fully conceptualized on paper. One tip was to provide reference articles for any information found that contributes to the design of the component (whether is be an already implemented system that can be useful etc.)
Week 4
Tasks this week: Choose a specific situation to develop a system for. Choose what concepts designed earlier are going to be used for this. Work out how these concepts are going to be used.
We initially decided to develop our system to be used in a apartment building. Later on we decided that instead of making the system for in a apartment building, we would place it in a public space where people can go to to pick it up. Such a place could be a supermarket.
We chose what concepts to use and decided how to work this out further. We divided the entire system in four parts and assigned a part to each group member. Each group member can now work out how their part will work and how they come together as a system.
Mentor Meeting Expectations: Have chosen a specific situation for which to develop a system. Have the new wiki pages printed out so he can see what we have done this week. Have tasks for the coming week planned out.
Feedback
The mentor session provided insight. We came to find that all the components we were "developing" actually already exist in the real world, mainly logistics. Our mentor session led us to the conclusion that knowing of all these pre-existing building blocks should help us make this mailbox a reality. We were told to focus on the connecting parts: HOW is this sub-part going to function, and what is required from the other components to make this work.
Week 5
Tasks this week: Continue working on the individual parts, apply already existing products and software.
We continued working on the parts we divided last week: the Opening, the Chimney, the Chimney to Cubby part and the Cubby to Person part. We did not specify requirements or deadlines but we tried to finish our parts as far as possible.
Furthermore we started working on a page about the Whole System. On this page we will show an overview of the system and what it will look like once installed in a supermarket. We also started thinking about issues that we will not be able to tackle in the remaining time but that will have to be addressed and solved before implementing the system.
Mentor Meeting Expectations: Know what the parts will look like and how the system will work. Have all the new pages of the wiki printed out.
Feedback
So far everything looks good. The individual parts are not completely finished yet and need some further specification. We need to know exactly which parts we will need to construct the system and what kind of software package we need to control it. Furthermore we were advised to do some additional tasks since we will not be making a prototype. We should do a survey about whether people will like this system. Furthermore we should look at what the system will look like in a supermarket setting and we should research current laws and regulations about drones.