Week 10: The Last Mile

The “Last Mile” delivery challenge is something that all companies in the logistics and e-commerce sectors are constantly grappling with. It refers to the final leg of the delivery journey, getting the package from the distribution center to the customer’s doorstep. And now, I’m on the last mile of my Senior Project. It’s time to get Boomerang from my garage, to the real world!

This means (figuratively) putting makeup on my drone and making her ready for show and display. But before that, I have a series of minor technological issues to hammer out.

1. Reprogram Raspberry Pi so that it implements while loops instead of if statements to unlatch package. This way, the gripper that holds the package to the drone will stay open while the QR code is detected below the drone, allowing for there to be a larger window for the package to be dropped.
2. I need to power the Raspberry Pi via the drone’s onboard electronics. Right now, it is being plugged into a wall socket. The Pi needs 3 amps current from a 5 volt source and I’ve already soldered connections from my power distribution board to make way for this load. However, I am currently receiving a UBEC (universal battery eliminator circuit) to step down the voltage from the 18.5 volts of the battery to 5 volts.
3. The drone needs to be fine tuned for stable flight using the “Autotune” flight mode in QGroundControl. I plan to head to a large, open field to run this and optimize flight.
4. It would be nice to test the recommended weight capacity of Boomerang. When I’m tuning the flight control, I will bring a water bottle with a carabiner attached to it so that Boomerang can pick it up. I will slowly fill up the water bottle in various flights and weigh it to see at what point is flight significantly hindered by the weight of the water.

Once these issues are hammered out, I’ll get Boomerang dressed and ready for her final presentation on May 18th! I’ve already built a pedestal that allows viewers to interact with Boomerang’s various quirks and features. Next, I’ll capture video clips of Boomerang in flight and dropping packages so that my audience can see a convincing visual of her in action. I’m also finalizing my presentation and practicing it in front of Boomerang. Trust me, she’s a difficult audience to please.

And with that, it’s a wrap! It’s been a wonderful run. I’ve learned more than I could’ve hoped throughout this project. It was a lot more difficult than I anticipated, with leaps and hurdles along the way. This may have hindered the progress I had hoped to make, but it propelled my intellectual exploration and curiosity every step of the way.

Thank you to Dr. Dixit, Ms. Nagpal, and Abishek for supporting me and keeping me on track to get Boomerang in the skies.