Smart unattended home delivery box
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Solution Overview
Problem
The last-meter delivery challenge in e-commerce logistics is plagued by inefficiencies, including missed deliveries, prolonged delivery times, additional costs, and poor user experience, due to the need for recipients to be physically present during delivery.
Innovation Solution
A Smart Unattended Home Delivery Box system that uses a lockable bin, advanced technologies, and blockchain technology to enable secure, convenient, and trackable delivery and pickup of small- and mid-sized items without the recipient's physical presence, utilizing smart mobile devices for authorization and communication, and optionally connecting to a cloud-based back-end facility for enhanced reliability and security.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If traditional delivery methods requiring recipient presence are used, then delivery security can be maintained, but delivery efficiency deteriorates due to missed deliveries and prolonged delivery times
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a smart delivery box as an intermediary device between the courier and the recipient. The box receives packages from couriers and makes them available for recipient pickup, eliminating the need for direct handover while maintaining security through authentication mechanisms. This intermediary solution resolves the contradiction by enabling unattended delivery (improving efficiency) while preserving security controls (maintaining reliability).
Solution Approach 2:
The system enables self-service delivery and pickup operations. Couriers can deposit packages into the box autonomously using authentication on their mobile devices, and recipients can retrieve packages independently through similar authentication. This self-service mechanism eliminates the need for coordinated presence of both parties, dramatically improving delivery efficiency while maintaining security through digital authentication protocols.
2Ease of operation
If smart delivery boxes are implemented, then delivery convenience is improved by eliminating recipient presence requirement, but system complexity increases due to integration of multiple technologies
Solution Approach 1:
The smart delivery box is designed as a multi-functional device that integrates authentication, communication, power management, and package storage capabilities. By consolidating these functions into a single universal device, the system achieves high convenience for users while managing complexity through functional integration rather than multiple separate systems. The box serves as both a secure storage unit and an intelligent communication node.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent merges multiple technological components (authentication module, communication interface, power supply, sensors) into a single integrated smart delivery box system. This consolidation approach improves ease of operation by providing a unified interface for users while managing system complexity through integrated architecture. The combination of blockchain technology, mobile communication, and physical security features creates a cohesive system rather than disparate components.
3Loss of information
If blockchain technology is used for tracking, then transparency and security are improved, but computational requirements and energy consumption increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the computationally intensive blockchain operations from the smart delivery box itself and relocates them to remote server infrastructure. The box maintains a lightweight client implementation that communicates with the blockchain network, while heavy computational tasks (transaction validation, consensus mechanisms) are performed off-box. This extraction resolves the contradiction by achieving full tracking transparency through blockchain while minimizing the box's energy consumption for these operations.
Data Source
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AI summary
The invention refers to a secure locker box including a basic box (100) with a door enclosing a storage area, and a lock system for locking said door, said lock system including a processing unit (201), an electro mechanical door lock (202), and a wireless communication module (300). The processing unit (201) is adapted to receive a wakeup signal via said wireless communication module (300); send a request for unlocking said electro mechanical door lock (202) and opening said door; in response to receiving an unlock confirmation message, actuate said electro mechanical door lock (202) such that it opens said door; recognize closing of said door and locking said electro mechanical door lock (202) and in response sending a door closed and door lock locked confirmation message. A method for handling the secure locker box comprises receiving the confirmation message by a remote locker center (400) and writing a confirmation to a blockchain to ensure authenticity.