UTC Swindon students emerged triumphant in an Amazon Challenge Day that pitted them against three other UTCs.
On Wednesday 8 March, the Year 10 and 11s put their engineering skills to the test as they competed against Aylesbury UTC, Greater Peterborough UTC and UTC Bristol in a challenge set by Amazon.
Students were asked to work together to design and build a new Amazon locker and delivery drone interface.
With Amazon apprentices attached to each group for guidance, students were asked to consider some key points when developing their design:
- Safety – drones should not come into contact with people or objects during operation.
- Ethics – how will the drone use and store images that it will capture during its flight?
- Environmental – how will this method of delivering packages be more sustainable than existing methods?
- Security – there will be up to 40 customer packages in the lockers at any time, how will the design ensure that customers can only access the products that they have paid for?
- Durability – the lockers should be able to withstand the elements and keep the contents in perfect condition.
The students came up with many innovative ideas which they had to present to a judging panel from Amazon. The designs were scored for the design, model and presentation.
Well done the winning team of Mia, Jess, Stefan, Riley and Josh, pictured above, who now have the opportunity to present their ideas to Amazon in London for the national final.
This video below shows how Amazon is developing the use of autonomous drones to deliver packages to its customers.
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