Research into the Deployment System

[nathanchan631]

What mechanism should be used to drop the water bottle?
How should we communicate with this mechanism?
What machinery is needed to make this mechanism work?
Inputs? Outputs?

[kushhansagarwal]

I have been thinking of a winch based mechanism with several variations on it. Once vision identifies a target, sends the location to flight software and the drone is aligned over the target, a payload attached to a string can be lowered onto the ground. The payload can very trivial or very smart

Super Trivial Servo Hook

The altitude is known, when the winch unrolls to the length equal to the altitude, the servo would be triggered to release. The communication can be wireless through RF, BLE or wired.

Semi Trivial Distance Sensor + Release

The payload can have an ultrasonic sensor attached, which will detect when the payload is a couple of feet above the ground. When it is triggered, the payload would be dropped from a hook release. The payload can be autonomous, wherein it would not need any communication with the drone.

Distance Sensor + Parachute

Similar to the above method, instead of a hard landing, a parachute can be attached to the water bottle for a controlled landing. The distance sensor would work similarly but instead of triggering the hook release, it would drop the bottle attached to a parachute.

Camera + Release

This would be the most complex but accurate one. The payload would consist of a camera and optional second computer like a Pi Zero. The payload unit would take photos of the ground and send the data to the drone computer. The drone would reposition itself to align the payload exactly on top of the target, mitigating and perturbations in the rope due to wind or other forces. This is unnecessary but cool.