A Novel Drone Delivery Platform on 5G Networks for Logistics

PSU researchers at the Robotics and Internet-of-Things (RIOTU) lab developed a novel delivery drone system that supports a fully autonomous package delivery, a fleet management system with cloud support, and a mobile application for package delivery requests. The system was fully developed by RIOTU lab researchers both the hardware and software. It offers a seamless experience to end-users to place delivery orders through mobile phones and allows users and operators to easily track and monitor each delivery mission in real-time. This system is considered as the best innovation in 2021 at Prince Sultan University.

The Robotics and Internet-of-Things Lab (RIOTU Lab) is the first research lab to be established in Prince Sultan University, under the College of Computer and Information Sciences back in 2017. Prof. Anis Koubaa currently leads the lab. The RIOTU Lab deals with multidisciplinary topics related to robotics and internet-of-things. In particular, it has four main overlapping research tracks: (i) deep learning and artificial intelligence, (ii) unmanned systems, (iii) internet-of-things, and (iv) emerging technologies.

One of the promising areas of research in the RIOTU lab is related to unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), informally known as drones. Prof. Anis Kouba began doing research involving drones seven years back in 2015. At that time, the work on drones was focused on understanding the basic consumer drones. Also Prof. Anis has been conducting extensive research on how to interact with drones and robots over the Internet. This has led him to design and develop the ROSLink protocol, an important milestone in his research that allows to connect any drone and robot using Robot Operating System (ROS) through the Internet. Later, as Prof. Anis and his team developed further knowledge in this field, they began working on developing real-world drone systems for delivery and logistics applications.

Since the beginning of 2021, RIOTU Lab members have been working extensively on developing an autonomous drone solution that enables a completely autonomous package delivery. This project aims to attract investment opportunities from both local and international companies.

The whole development process took place at Prince Sultan University, specifically in the RIOTU Lab. Dr. Mohamed Abdelkader, Eng. Rayan Al-Akkad, and Belal Kawaf were responsible for customizing multiple drone platforms with a custom autonomy software while Ahmad Qashlan and Abdelrahman Hammad handled the mobile software development of the user interface aspect of the project. Anas Kanhouch was working on developing the ROSLink protocol, which is used as a communication and serialization protocol between the cloud on the one hand, and drones and robots on the other hand.

After just a couple of months of hard work, the lab has successfully developed the solution -- named Wassel. Wassel is a complete system that consists of a custom drone platform with a custom payload system, software that supports a fully autonomous package delivery, a fleet management system with cloud support, and a mobile application for package delivery requests.

The following list summarizes the main features of the Wassel Drone System. It includes a/an:

• Custom unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) with a custom smart magnetic gripper for autonomous pickup and drop off.
• Custom software for fully autonomous package delivery missions, which supports autonomous (and manual) package pickup and drop off.
• Maximum payload of up to 5 kg with up to 30 minutes endurance.
• Maximum range of up to 20 km.
• Fleet management system for managing delivery operations of several drones, with cloud support.
• Mobile application for the end-user to make delivery requests.
• Onboard AI computer that enables the integration of onboard safety and security features, such as object detection and obstacle/collision avoidance.
• Unlimited communication range using 4G/5G networks.

In September 2021, three different companies -- Al Borg Medical Laboratories, NUPCO, Saudi Post (SPL) Innovation Center -- approached the lab to discuss the possibility of integrating drone technology into their logistics system. The lab took this opportunity to conduct a live demonstration of their product. Furthermore, the Ministry of Health also showed great interest in our solution and we demonstrated to them how to use drones for the delivery of blood samples, while maintaining the quality of the blood during transportation.

The live demonstration took place on the university’s football field to show the capability of drones in the transportation of packages and blood samples. Overall, the visitors were very impressed with the demonstration and were keen on adopting this technology into their business.

Due to its success, Wassel will be applied to deliver packages between PSU buildings soon. The RIOTU Lab is happy to finally see the fruits of its hard work. By sharing this success with everyone in the university, it hopes to encourage other researchers and faculty members to come up with solutions that will benefit society and contribute to the kingdom’s Vision 2030. What has been achieved so far was possible thanks to the tremendous support provided by the university.