Food for Thought

Your challenge is to consider the journey of food to your plate, determine how disruptions from the COVID-19 pandemic are affecting the food supply locally and globally, and propose solutions to address these issues.

L I F T - To the skies!

Summary

Last-mile logistics has long been served by traditional means: A courier shows up on your doorstep, package in-hand.However, times have changed. The formerly mundane act of face-to-face interaction now carries a risk of sickness and death, due to the highly-contagious COVID-19.Drone delivery, while not a novel idea, has key areas that can be improved in order for it to really take off (pun intended) and serve the public.

How We Addressed This Challenge

The team took a look at existing delivery/logistics drone solutions and identified (within hackathon time limits, and with respect to our skill set) key areas that can be improved:

----> Public trust in drone-based solutions (privacy concerns, security concerns)

----> Modifications to the drones themselves for it to handle short turnaround times,  frequent deployments, and safer operation

  • Well-designed propeller guards to greatly reduce damage during unfortunate events
  • A rope-and-hook mechanism, akin to a fishing line, so that recipients don't need to be too close to the drone during delivery (simply unhook their eco-friendly bags containing their goods)
  • A small speaker+mic+camera setup so the operator can talk with the delivery recipient
  • Changes to the battery design to enable fast swaps and optimized charging
  • If time permits, a VTOL (vertical take-off and landing) design for far enough deliveries
  • (Without compromising already standard features, such as GPS and cellular connections)
How We Developed This Project

With the pandemic still raging on, now is a better time than ever to innovate on alternative, contactless ways of moving things from point A to point B.


The team is looking to integrate these data in order to maximize the solution's efficiency:

  1. ESA's EnviSat data, specifically ASAR data from the RA-2 sensor, to assist in terrain navigation. Traditional road maps wouldn't be optimal for drone navigation since there's a lot more options when you're in the air
  2. NASA LANCE data (Atmospheric Infrared Sounder, AIRS) to give the solution a heads-up on atmospheric trouble, such as dust and moisture/precipitation
  3. Any other satellite that can monitor the atmosphere in real time (temperature, weather, radio reflectance) in order to avoid radio contact loss due to sub-optimal radio horizon, such as abrupt changes to the environment's K-factor


Tools and Coding languages

  • TBA. We'll figure it out later. No time. This team is composed of undergrad electronics engineering students, a computer science undergrad, and an IT graduate.
  • Hardware: TBA. We'd like to custom-make it to reduce costs.


Why with this solution?

From the name itself, a supply chain has multiple parts, all with their own processes and associated shortcomings. This project focuses on the part where the recipient usually directly interacts with the chain: last-mile logistics.

The government measures put in place in an attempt to stop COVID-19 did not impact the production and mass transportation of essential goods, as these industries were allowed to operate at full capacity.

However, issues arose within communities when public transportation was suspended and people were quarantined in their homes. It quickly became apparent that essential good acquisition, which is as mundane as buying groceries, became nearly impossible during the lockdown. People were forced to drink water to pass their hunger, and in best cases, they had salt and rice for meals.

Project Demo

Link to Google Slides: https://bit.ly/sa-covid-yeet-drones

Data & Resources

Space Data

  • ESA EnviSat
  • NASA LANCE
  • Any other service that may provide atmospheric data in near-realtime


Tags
#air quality, #hardware, #satellites, #atmosphere, #drones, #logistics, #delivery, #last mile
Global Judging
This project was submitted for consideration during the Space Apps Global Judging process.