Problem
Over the past decade, the popularity of e-commerce has exploded with consumers attracted to the convenience of ordering via the Internet and having goods delivered in less than a week. With most of these packages being delivered to residences, porch piracy has become an increasingly prevalent problem. Every day in the US, ~$25M of delivered goods are reported as stolen. Most existing solutions are either expensive or involve inconveniencing consumers.
Product Overview
Objective
Design a system to reduce the number of packages stolen from residences.
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank the Department of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering at the University of Waterloo for supporting this project. We would also like to thank Professors Baris Fidan and Ayman El-Hag for their guidance throughout the project.
Solution
The Porch Vault is a cloud-connected device that stores packages to prevent porch piracy while maintaining the existing convenience and cost-effectiveness of e-commerce. A companion Chrome extension integrates into checkout flows and supports generation/storage of access PINs.