ThoughtWorks
  • Contact
  • Español
  • Português
  • Deutsch
  • 中文
Go to overview
  • Engineering Culture, Delivery Mindset

    Embrace a modern approach to software development and deliver value faster

    Intelligence-Driven Decision Making

    Leverage your data assets to unlock new sources of value

  • Frictionless Operating Model

    Improve your organization's ability to respond to change

    Platform Strategy

    Create adaptable technology platforms that move with your business strategy

  • Experience Design and Product Capability

    Rapidly design, deliver and evolve exceptional products and experiences

    Partnerships

    Leveraging our network of trusted partners to amplify the outcomes we deliver for our clients

Go to overview
  • Automotive
  • Cleantech, Energy and Utilities
  • Financial Services and Insurance
  • Healthcare
  • Media and Publishing
  • Not-for-profit
  • Public Sector
  • Retail and E-commerce
  • Travel and Transport
Go to overview

Featured

  • Technology

    An in-depth exploration of enterprise technology and engineering excellence

  • Business

    Keep up to date with the latest business and industry insights for digital leaders

  • Culture

    The place for career-building content and tips, and our view on social justice and inclusivity

Digital Publications and Tools

  • Technology Radar

    An opinionated guide to technology frontiers

  • Perspectives

    A publication for digital leaders

  • Digital Fluency Model

    A model for prioritizing the digital capabilities needed to navigate uncertainty

  • Decoder

    The business execs' A-Z guide to technology

All Insights

  • Articles

    Expert insights to help your business grow

  • Blogs

    Personal perspectives from ThoughtWorkers around the globe

  • Books

    Explore our extensive library

  • Podcasts

    Captivating conversations on the latest in business and tech

Go to overview
  • Application process

    What to expect as you interview with us

  • Grads and career changers

    Start your tech career on the right foot

  • Search jobs

    Find open positions in your region

  • Stay connected

    Sign up for our monthly newsletter

Go to overview
  • Conferences and Events
  • Diversity and Inclusion
  • News
  • Open Source
  • Our Leaders
  • Social Change
  • Español
  • Português
  • Deutsch
  • 中文
ThoughtWorksMenu
  • Close   ✕
  • What we do
  • Who we work with
  • Insights
  • Careers
  • About
  • Contact
  • Back
  • Close   ✕
  • Go to overview
  • Engineering Culture, Delivery Mindset

    Embrace a modern approach to software development and deliver value faster

  • Experience Design and Product Capability

    Rapidly design, deliver and evolve exceptional products and experiences

  • Frictionless Operating Model

    Improve your organization's ability to respond to change

  • Intelligence-Driven Decision Making

    Leverage your data assets to unlock new sources of value

  • Partnerships

    Leveraging our network of trusted partners to amplify the outcomes we deliver for our clients

  • Platform Strategy

    Create adaptable technology platforms that move with your business strategy

  • Back
  • Close   ✕
  • Go to overview
  • Automotive
  • Cleantech, Energy and Utilities
  • Financial Services and Insurance
  • Healthcare
  • Media and Publishing
  • Not-for-profit
  • Public Sector
  • Retail and E-commerce
  • Travel and Transport
  • Back
  • Close   ✕
  • Go to overview
  • Featured

  • Technology

    An in-depth exploration of enterprise technology and engineering excellence

  • Business

    Keep up to date with the latest business and industry insights for digital leaders

  • Culture

    The place for career-building content and tips, and our view on social justice and inclusivity

  • Digital Publications and Tools

  • Technology Radar

    An opinionated guide to technology frontiers

  • Perspectives

    A publication for digital leaders

  • Digital Fluency Model

    A model for prioritizing the digital capabilities needed to navigate uncertainty

  • Decoder

    The business execs' A-Z guide to technology

  • All Insights

  • Articles

    Expert insights to help your business grow

  • Blogs

    Personal perspectives from ThoughtWorkers around the globe

  • Books

    Explore our extensive library

  • Podcasts

    Captivating conversations on the latest in business and tech

  • Back
  • Close   ✕
  • Go to overview
  • Application process

    What to expect as you interview with us

  • Grads and career changers

    Start your tech career on the right foot

  • Search jobs

    Find open positions in your region

  • Stay connected

    Sign up for our monthly newsletter

  • Back
  • Close   ✕
  • Go to overview
  • Conferences and Events
  • Diversity and Inclusion
  • News
  • Open Source
  • Our Leaders
  • Social Change
Blogs
Select a topic
View all topicsClose
Technology 
Agile Project Management Cloud Continuous Delivery  Data Science & Engineering Defending the Free Internet Evolutionary Architecture Experience Design IoT Languages, Tools & Frameworks Legacy Modernization Machine Learning & Artificial Intelligence Microservices Platforms Security Software Testing Technology Strategy 
Business 
Financial Services Global Health Innovation Retail  Transformation 
Careers 
Career Hacks Diversity & Inclusion Social Change 
Blogs

Topics

Choose a topic
  • Technology
    Technology
  • Technology Overview
  • Agile Project Management
  • Cloud
  • Continuous Delivery
  • Data Science & Engineering
  • Defending the Free Internet
  • Evolutionary Architecture
  • Experience Design
  • IoT
  • Languages, Tools & Frameworks
  • Legacy Modernization
  • Machine Learning & Artificial Intelligence
  • Microservices
  • Platforms
  • Security
  • Software Testing
  • Technology Strategy
  • Business
    Business
  • Business Overview
  • Financial Services
  • Global Health
  • Innovation
  • Retail
  • Transformation
  • Careers
    Careers
  • Careers Overview
  • Career Hacks
  • Diversity & Inclusion
  • Social Change
Data Science & EngineeringMachine Learning & Artificial IntelligenceTransformationTechnologyBusiness

Taking urban drone delivery to new heights

Dane Sherburn Dane Sherburn
Katerina Khomyakova Katerina Khomyakova

Published: Jan 19, 2021

Aerialoop is a delivery company taking delivery to the next level by using drones to drastically reduce delivery times across the city. Within the city of Quito, it takes roughly 45 minutes to drive from one side to the other, but just 7 minutes to fly -- over a 5x reduction in delivery time.

During the pandemic, Aerialoop has also been delivering groceries to local restaurants and COVID-19 medical supplies from the local hospital, HospitalDLV, to rural patients.

Challenges with drone delivery services

Although drone delivery is significantly faster than existing services, it does come with some novel challenges. One such challenge is to ensure the drones navigate the city autonomously without malfunctioning. Drones can fail for a wide range of reasons, such as adverse weather conditions, user errors and mechanical parts failing due to general wear and tear.

Path to the problems solving

Aerialoop came to us with the inquiry of assisting with these prime business problems resolution. The support was given by Prototype.Lab( ), a technology hub that ThoughtWorks Ecuador created specifically to help entrepreneurs and artists develop a prototype of their product or idea. The hub contributes both to the advance of the technology community in Ecuador and also to partner and support a local entrepreneur or business leader.

With the strong back up of Prototype.Lab( ), we focused on the Aerialoop need  - creation of a system that can be proactive in predicting malfunctioning components, which is crucial for safe deliveries, especially in urban environments. The proactive maintenance also needs to be automated as the fleet of drones grows over the time.

Aerialoop uses the Wingquad3 to deliver payloads. The Wingquad3 has roughly 800 measurements from sensors on board, each sampling multiple times per second. A 10 minute flight therefore produces on the order of 10,000 data points, each in 800-dimensional space. Using this data, we’d like to determine if any parts have failed, or are likely to in the future. 

Improving the safety of drone delivery

In essence, the question we’d like to answer is: given the sensor data from a drones most recent flight, is it safe to fly it again?

This problem can be framed as an anomaly detection problem. By collecting sensor data from healthy drones, it’s possible to learn the underlying distribution of healthy sensor data. Then, given a future flight, we can say if the sensor data departed sharply from the learnt “healthy” distribution, in which case one or more components are likely malfunctioning.

Healthy Sensor Measurements diagram

In order to learn the full distribution of healthy sensor data, we flew the drone in a wide range of scenarios, such as adverse weather conditions and with varying payload weights. With this ‘healthy’ baseline, our team then developed a system to detect malfunctioning batteries and actuator controllers onboard the drone. 

We started by gathering, parsing and transforming the existing raw log data into a consumable state. In addition, new logs from recent flights had to be available in a timely manner. To support these requirements, we developed a data pipeline on Google Cloud Platform which transforms, enriches and stores flight logs data. This makes it available for quick user insights and to downstream machine learning models. Our anomaly detection models then used this data to detect if either the battery or actuator controller was malfunctioning during a given flight. The output of these models, as well as historical sensor data for each drone, were made available on a dashboard.

What's next

Future improvements could include incorporating local weather information into the dashboard to inform the pilot of any weather conditions that may be dangerous for deliveries that day. On a higher level, historical delivery data could be used to suggest where future take-off/landing pads should be built.

Acknowledgements

This work was accomplished in two months thanks to the joint effort of teams in Ecuador, England, Switzerland and Australia.

Thanks to the ThoughtWorks team, in particular Carlos Fuentes, Carlos Buñay, Michelle Peralbo, Eric Piñera, Andres Salazar, Andrea Santacruz and Rajat Jain; and the Aerialoop team: Andreas Antener, Pedro Meneses and José Barzallo.

Technology Hub

An in-depth exploration of enterprise technology and engineering excellence.

Explore
Related blogs
Software Testing

Why test the user journey?

Scott Davis
Learn more
Agile Project Management

Transitioning from conventional to shift-left testing

Haritha Hari
Learn more
Software Testing

AIMA: How to increase the performance of QA Analysts through indicators

Jonas Davila
Learn more
  • What we do
  • Who we work with
  • Insights
  • Careers
  • About
  • Contact

WeChat

×
QR code to ThoughtWorks China WeChat subscription account

Media and analyst relations | Privacy policy | Modern Slavery statement ThoughtWorks| Accessibility | © 2021 ThoughtWorks, Inc.