Smart Mailbox – the Next Thing in Drone Delivery

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As drone delivery is becoming more available, packages to the ground outside a home or business might be exposed to dangers such as “porch pirates,” inclement weather, etc.

Smart drone mailboxes under development can solve this problem regarding last inch delivery: The technology-enabled container opens, receives and stores packages in a safe, secure, climate-controlled box accessible only by a homeowner or business owner. 

Several companies have been developing smart drone mailboxes. Valqari and DRONEDEK are among them.  Valqari is already producing units while DRONEDEK is working to complete its first functional prototype. The basic operating principles of their mailboxes are quite similar, according to now.northropgrumman.com. 

When a customer orders a delivery by drone, the package is loaded into a drone-compatible container, then flown to the customer location guided by GPS coordinates. Once the drone is within approximately 100 feet of the mailbox, it reverts to a vision-based landing system, then begins an authentication process with the smart drone mailbox. This process verifies that it’s the right drone delivering the right package to the right mailbox.

When the authentication process is complete, the drone lands on the mailbox, the mailbox opens its door, and the package is delivered. The drone then sends a notification of the delivery to both the shipper and the recipient to let them know that the smart drone mailbox has taken digital custody of the shipment and that it’s now available for the recipient to pick up at their convenience. The recipient communicates with the smart drone mailbox via a phone-based app.

Smart drone mailboxes are designed to be “drone agnostic” and compatible with conventional delivery services. The same app that will allow a consumer to open the smart drone mailbox to retrieve a package will also allow a FedEx driver, a U.S. Postal Service employee or even an Amazon Prime driver to open the mailbox to deliver a package.

Public concern over the spread of COVID-19 has become a more significant factor in the design and development schedule of smart drone mailboxes. In a nod to concerns about potential COVID-19 contamination of package surfaces, both companies are considering including an ultraviolet package sterilization feature in their mailboxes.

The types of smart drone mailboxes being developed also reflect the nascent market for such units. Valqari, for example, is focusing its early efforts on multi-user community boxes. These boxes could be located on, say, a hospital campus or within a village where it could serve many customers. Valqari is also developing a stand-alone residential unit and, eventually, a window-attached unit for high-rise apartments.

For its part, DRONEDEK plans to develop small, medium and large smart drone mailboxes for business owners, a residential box and a multi-family or urban cluster box. 

Interestingly, both companies have recognized the need to monetize the “big data” available from a community-based network of electronic sensor stations to help reduce costs of smart drone mailboxes for consumers.