Dronistics

Human-Friendly Drone Delivery System

for last centimeter delivery

 

About Dronistics

Dronistics is a personal and human-friendly drone delivery system for last-centimeter delivery to hard-to-reach places. The system is composed of hardware – different drones and logistic software to autonomously manage the drones during delivery.

The project was developed during Ph.D. of Przemyslaw Mariusz Kornatowski ([email protected]). Przemyslaw developed the system together with a team of students, interns, and engineers who would like to thank very much for their cooperation.

The drones

PackDrone

The PackDrone is safe by design. The cage protects people, the parcel, and the drone. Additionally, the drone is foldable to save storage space and facilitate its transportation to the deployment location. Its volume is reduced by 90% when folded, which can be done in a single movement. The design is patented.

The drone allows for safe door-step delivery!

Storage volume reduction of 90%.

The first patented drone of Dronistics!

Features:

Safe
The cage protects people, the drone, and the parcel

Foldable
Easy to store and transport

Easy to use
Deploys in seconds

Payload
0.5 kg parcels

GPS & Vision-based navigation
Fully autonomous

Last cm delivery
Precisely and directly to your door-step

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyh_YJkYFCQ

GearQuad

The GearQuad is made of a dense and lightweight grid that protects hands and fingers from fast rotating propellers. When flying in proximity to humans, the arms and propellers are retracted and fully sealed within the cage, thus making the drone safe and also reducing the total footprint. When flying at a cruising altitude far from people and objects, the arms and propellers extend out of the protective grid, thus increasing aerodynamic efficiency by more than 20%. The design is patent pending.

The first safest drone for in-hand delivery!

The GearQuad delivers directly to windows and balconies!

Parcel placed above the cage allows the drone to transport parcels of various sizes without negative impact on lift.

Retracted arms in the cage reduce storage volume by 55%

Features:

Very safe
The very dense cage protects even the fingers of small children

Portable
Easy to store and transport

Easy to use
Just attach a parcel

Payload
0.5 kg parcels
Transports various sizes of parcels

GPS navigation
Fully autonomous

Last cm delivery
Precisely and directly to your hands

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDDuO28mhFI

The software

The drones are connected to the internet via a 4G modem, and it is controlled by the web application of Dronistics available on any device e.g., smartphone, tablet, or laptop. The delivery is fully autonomous using GPS. The software has a series of safety checks to ensure safety for people during flight and while unloading the parcel.

Next-generation software solutions

Webapps that simplify the delivery process

Sender App

The sender application is a reliable app which provides a unique way to deliver parcels to the recipient’s location.

You can remotely issue commands to deliver the cargo to the recipient’s location and monitor all of its resources such as battery level or drone position.

Recipient App

Need anything at your location? Ask the app.

  • Platform independent application
  • Allows to specify exact delivery location
  • Shows the location of the UAV once assigned
  • Keeps track of existing deliveries in real-time

 

It can be used for logistics, rescue and emergency missions

 

Field deployments

University campus

Delivery of 3D-printed parts and PCBs on the EPFL university campus

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Yj_0WqxAeo

More info: https://actu.epfl.ch/news/a-drone-for-last-centimeter-delivery-2/

 

Rural environment

Delivery of medications

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5jOXkPXq-I

More info: https://actu.epfl.ch/news/testing-agile-cargo-drone-delivery-to-improve-he-2/

 

Populated event

Delivery of temperature-sensitive payload (ice-cream)

Video: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/BL460Uf3Qvo

 

Promotion events

Below are highlighted just a few events from a list of many events in which  Dronistics team took part:

The Dronistics and Flyjacket projects are displayed at CES, Las Vegas:

https://actu.epfl.ch/news/the-dronistics-and-flyjacket-projects-are-displaye/

PackDrone and FlyJacket were demonstrated at HUBWeek 2018, Boston:

https://actu.epfl.ch/news/packdrone-and-flyjacket-were-demonstrated-at-hubwe/

Dronistics was presented at Drone Innovators Network, Zurich:

https://actu.epfl.ch/news/dronistics-was-presented-at-drone-innovators-netwo/

Reuters reports on the PackDrone:

https://actu.epfl.ch/news/reuters-reports-on-the-packdrone/

 

Awards

In 2021, the paper: P. M. Kornatowski, M. Feroskhan, W. J. Stewart, and D. Floreano, “A Morphing Cargo Drone for Safe Flight in Proximity of Humans,” in IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, vol. 5, no. 3, pp. 4233-4240, July 2020 was Honourable Mention from the IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters.

More info: https://actu.epfl.ch/news/two-lis-articles-highlighted-during-icra-2021/

 

In 2018, IMD announced Dronistics as one of the winners of the 21st annual IMD Startup Competition.

More info: https://actu.epfl.ch/news/imd-announced-dronistics-as-one-of-the-winners-of-/

 

In 2018, Doctoral candidate Pu Bai receives Student Best Paper Award during the 18th International Conference on Control, Automation, and Systems, Korea for his work on “Wall-contact sliding control strategy for a 2D caged quadrotor”.

More info: https://actu.epfl.ch/news/pu-bai-receives-best-student-paper-award/

Related paper: 

https://infoscience.epfl.ch/record/256786?ln=en

https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8571703

 

In 2018, Przemyslaw Kornatowski for the design of the PackDrone received three awards during the 46th International Inventions Fair organized by Palexpo in Geneva, Switzerland:

  • Audience Award,
  • Special Award of the President of the Patent Office of the Republic of Poland,
  • Award of the President of the Association of Portuguese Inventors.

More info: https://actu.epfl.ch/news/packdrone-receives-3-awards-at-the-46th-internatio/

 

Papers

M. Kornatowski, M. Feroskhan, W. J. Stewart and D. Floreano, “A Morphing Cargo Drone for Safe Flight in Proximity of Humans,” in IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, vol. 5, no. 3, pp. 4233-4240, July 2020, DOI: 10.1109/LRA.2020.2993757.

Paper: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9091043

 

M. Kornatowski, M. Feroskhan, W. J. Stewart and D. Floreano, “Downside Up: Rethinking Parcel Position for Aerial Delivery,” in IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, vol. 5, no. 3, pp. 4297-4304, July 2020, DOI: 10.1109/LRA.2020.2993768.

Paper: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9091085

 

M. Kornatowski, A. Bhaskaran, G. M. Heitz, S. Mintchev and D. Floreano, “Last-Centimeter Personal Drone Delivery: Field Deployment and User Interaction,” in IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, vol. 3, no. 4, pp. 3813-3820, Oct. 2018, DOI: 10.1109/LRA.2018.2856282.

Paper: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8411102

 

M. Kornatowski, S. Mintchev, and D. Floreano, “An origami-inspired cargo drone,” in IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, 2017, vol. 2017–September, pp. 6855–6862, DOI: 10.1109/IROS.2017.8206607.

Paper: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8206607

 

P. Bai, B. Guerreiro, R. Cunha, P. Kornatowski, D. Floreano, and C. Silvestre, “Wall-contact sliding control strategy for a 2D caged quadrotor,” in International Conference on Control, Automation, and Systems, 2018.

Paper: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8571703

 

Dronistics was supported by: