Design and Implementation of an Autonomous Pickup and Delivery System

ABSTRACT

An autonomous pickup and delivery system is a system that is automated to perform the traditional/ manual pickup and delivery service with minimal or without need of human intervention. The automatic pickup and delivery system is a system for the transmission of material objects between homes, stores and offices. This provides as much convenience as possible for pickup and deliveries. The aim of this project is to design and implement an autonomous pickup and delivery system by creating a dedicated path and solving missed mail problems.

Many researchers have attempted to create systems that can perform pickup and deliveries but this systems need a great amount of improvement. This project attempts to create an alternative and modernized method to carry out pickup and delivery by creating an artificial intelligent system designed with several system units and sensors. The system consists of three parts which are; the mail sensor, the path detector and power supply.

The initial simulation of the project was carried out on the proteus software which is used for developing, testing, and virtually prototyping embedded system designs. The autonomous pickup and delivery system was made with the use of the arduino nano which basically controls the other components in the system which are the DC motor, infrared sensors, LED, LDR, motor driver and mail sensor.

The final system was compiled which includes the autonomous pickup and delivery system and the dedicated path for the system. The aim and objectives of this project were achieved, which was to design and implement an autonomous pickup and delivery system by creating a dedicated path for the system and solving some problems faced by the traditional pickup and delivery service that is missed mails problem. The system can be employed in small spaces but can be improved to operate in a larger space with features like authentication and alarms to ensure security.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION ...................................................................................................................... ii

CERTIFICATION .................................................................................................................. iii

DEDICATION ........................................................................................................................ iv

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ........................................................................................................v

TABLE OF CONTENTS ........................................................................................................ vi

LIST OF TABLES ................................................................................................................ viii

LIST OF FIGURES ................................................................................................................ ix

ABSTRACT...............................................................................................................................x

CHAPTER ONE .......................................................................................................................1

1.1 Background of Study .....................................................................................................1

1.2 Problem Statement .........................................................................................................3

1.3 Aim and Objectives .......................................................................................................3

1.4 Justification...................................................................................................................4

1.5 Scope of Study ..............................................................................................................4

1.6 Organization of the Report ............................................................................................5

CHAPTER TWO ......................................................................................................................6

2.1 Pickup and Delivery System .........................................................................................6

2.2 Autonomous Pickup and Delivery System .....................................................................8

2.3 Autonomous Robots ......................................................................................................8

2.4 Internet of things (IoT) ................................................................................................ 18

2.5 Machine to machine (M2M) Communication .............................................................. 18

2.6 Wireless Communication Technology ......................................................................... 20

2.7 Artificial intelligence .................................................................................................. 20

2.8 Related Works ............................................................................................................ 21

CHAPTER THREE ................................................................................................................ 25

3.1 Approach of Design .................................................................................................... 25

3.2 Design of the Circuit ................................................................................................... 25

3.3 Hardware Specifications ............................................................................................. 28

3.4 Designing the System using Arduino nano Microcontroller ......................................... 32

CHAPTER FOUR ................................................................................................................... 36

4.1 Pre-Coupling Test ....................................................................................................... 36

4.2 Coupling Test ............................................................................................................. 36

4.3 System Evaluation ...................................................................................................... 41

4.4 Velocity Analysis ........................................................................................................ 41

4.5 Result.......................................................................................................................... 41

CHAPTER FIVE..................................................................................................................... 43

5.1 Summary .................................................................................................................... 43

5.2 Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 43

5.3 Recommendation ........................................................................................................ 43

5.2 Challenges .................................................................................................................. 44

REFERENCES ........................................................................................................................ 45

APPENDIX .............................................................................................................................. 48 LIST OF TABLES

Table 2.1: Technical Specification of the Arduino Nano …………….…....………...……..……14

Table 2.2: Arduino Nano Pinout…………………......…………………....……………….…......15

Table 3.1: Truth table for the movement of the pickup and delivery system …………………......34

Table 4.1: Velocity analysis…………………......…………………....……………….…............42 LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 2.1: Image of pickup and delivery ………………………………………………….………7

Figure 2.2: An autonomous pickup and delivery system …………….…………………….………9

Figure 2.3(a): Image of an Arduino nano ……………..…………..…………………….…. ..…12

Figure 2.3(b): Image of a DC motor ……………..……………………………………...….……12

Figure 2.3(c): Image of an LDR ………………..…………………………………………..……12

Figure 2.3(d): Image of a robot vehicle chassis ……………..……………………………...……12

Figure 2.4(a): Image of an L 298N driver ………………..………………………………...……17 Figure 2.4(b): image of an LED ……………..……………………………………………..……17

Figure 2.4(c): Image of a vero board ………………..……………………………………..….…17

Figure 2.4(d): Image of an IR sensor ………………..………………………………..…….……17

Figure 3.1: Block diagram for the autonomous pickup and delivery system…………..………..26

Figure 3.2: Circuit diagram for the system ………………………………….……………..……27

Figure 3.3(a): Image of an Arduino nano ………………………………………………….……30

Figure 3.3(b): Image of a DC motor ……………………………………………………….……30

Figure 3.3(c): Image of an IR sensor ……………………………………………………….……30

Figure 3.4(a): Image of an LDR …………………………………………...……………….……31

Figure 3.4(b): Image of a robot vehicle chassis …………………………………………….……31

Figure 3.5: Flow chart of the system ………………………...…………………………….....…35 Figure 4.1: coupling test ………………………………………...………………...………….…37

Figure 4.2: coupling test ………………………………………...………………...………….…38

Figure 4.3: Image of the autonomous pickup and delivery system on its path.…...………….…39 Figure 4.4: The system in motion …………………..…………...………………...………….…40