Designing a double winch UAV delivery hook with a winch for lowering and a winch for releasing loads

School Name

Spring Valley High School

Grade Level

11th Grade

Presentation Topic

Engineering

Presentation Type

Non-Mentored

Abstract

Drone deliveries are becoming increasingly more popular among delivery transport companies. Currently, Walmart, a leading company in drone delivery services in the United States, have delivered more than 6000 recorded drone deliveries from 36 different drone delivery hubs. Despite the popularity of these deliveries, these drones are still held back by a low weight capacity, manual release, and a dependency on human assistance. These issues reduce the potential for a more widespread use of drone deliveries, because they limit the options of payloads. The capabilities of this prototype increase weight capacity, add an automatic release on ground detection, and reduce dependency on human assistance. These both increase the potential for drone deliveries, and get technology closer to a fully automated drone delivery service. Therefore, the purpose of this research was to design a UAV release mechanism that had a high weight capacity, consistent securing, and an automatic release on ground detection. The device was designed by using a hollow outer ring with a gap in the bottom middle, and an inner ring inside the outer ring that closed and opened the gap. A motor that activated on ground detection pulled the inner ring when the device is on the ground, and releases the ring when the device is suspended. To test the device for its functionality, a payload was attached by rope inside the ring. The results found that the device successfully functioned while holding a 10 kilogram payload. This prototype shows that with some added capabilities, delivery UAVs could have a broader range of payloads and could get closer to automated delivery.

Location

RITA 102

Start Date

3-23-2024 11:30 AM

Presentation Format

Oral and Written

Group Project

No

COinS
 
Mar 23rd, 11:30 AM

Designing a double winch UAV delivery hook with a winch for lowering and a winch for releasing loads

RITA 102

Drone deliveries are becoming increasingly more popular among delivery transport companies. Currently, Walmart, a leading company in drone delivery services in the United States, have delivered more than 6000 recorded drone deliveries from 36 different drone delivery hubs. Despite the popularity of these deliveries, these drones are still held back by a low weight capacity, manual release, and a dependency on human assistance. These issues reduce the potential for a more widespread use of drone deliveries, because they limit the options of payloads. The capabilities of this prototype increase weight capacity, add an automatic release on ground detection, and reduce dependency on human assistance. These both increase the potential for drone deliveries, and get technology closer to a fully automated drone delivery service. Therefore, the purpose of this research was to design a UAV release mechanism that had a high weight capacity, consistent securing, and an automatic release on ground detection. The device was designed by using a hollow outer ring with a gap in the bottom middle, and an inner ring inside the outer ring that closed and opened the gap. A motor that activated on ground detection pulled the inner ring when the device is on the ground, and releases the ring when the device is suspended. To test the device for its functionality, a payload was attached by rope inside the ring. The results found that the device successfully functioned while holding a 10 kilogram payload. This prototype shows that with some added capabilities, delivery UAVs could have a broader range of payloads and could get closer to automated delivery.