Abstract—This article describes the mechatronic design of a delivery octarotor drone equipped with safety features including protective bumpers for its propellers, parachute, and retractable gear. A GNSS-RTK unit provides extensive pose-refinement for trajectory tracking, while an RGBDepth Camera provides distance measurements from any present obstacles. A deep learning algorithm classifies any objects into certain categories (i.e., balloons, drones) followed by a trajectory avoidance algorithm. An onboard computer handles these sensor measurements and communicates with the autopilot for adjusting the trajectory. At the same time, it provides HD-live video feed to the base station and runs any onboard ROS-services. The resulting drone can safely land within a circular area of radius 1.5 m, while flying over, under and around obstacles or buildings. The carried payload is handled by a dual linear actuator gripper that releases it upon the drone's precise landing.

Index Terms—delivery drone, drone safety features, obstacle classification

Cite: Nikolaos Evangeliou, Nikolaos Giakoumidis, Dimitirs Chaikalis, Athanasios Tsoukalas, Halil Utku Unlu, Daitao Xing, and Anthony Tzes, "Mechatronic Design of a Delivery Octarotor Drone," International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Robotics Research, Vol. 11, No. 5, pp. 351-356, May 2022. DOI: 10.18178/ijmerr.11.5.351-356

Copyright © 2022 by the authors. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided that the article is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.