Discover some of the logistics and transport technologies created by students aged 9 to 16 from the finalist teams at the SESI Robotics Festival
What technologies are today's young people creating for tomorrow's delivery sector? It will be possible to get an idea at the national stage of the 4O SESI Robotics Festival 2022, held between May 27th and 29th, 2022 in São Paulo (SP).
In this competition, students aged 9 to 16, from public and private schools across Brazil, thought of very interesting solutions to improve the transport of goods (and travel safety), the packaging of transported products and the delivery service. After all, the challenge of this edition was to use the investigative spirit, creativity and scientific research to find solutions in transport and logistics.
Anyone who goes to the event, held at the Biennial Pavilion, will be able to see up close the work produced by the 100 teams participating in the Festival, from the five regions of the country, who qualified for the national stage after winning the regional duels. The winners of this festival's competitions guarantee a place in international tournaments.
These are innovation projects created by the teams that participate in the FIRST LEGO League Challenge (FLL), one of the competitions of the SESI tournament (find out about the other programs here), in which students must not only build a robot with toy parts but also find solutions to transportation and logistics problems.
O iFood News gives a hint of some of the solutions created by Brazilian students to innovate delivery, packaging and transport of goods — and which are among the finalists. Check out!
Bag for hot and cold
The Acrônicos team, from Estância (SE), created a thermal backpack that can carry food that needs to be stored at low or high temperatures on the same delivery trip.
In the frozen food compartment, they used a peltier tablet, which can cool one side when subjected to electrical voltage. For hot foods, the team used incandescent light bulbs. And this entire apparatus runs on energy coming from the delivery drivers’ motorcycle battery.
Bag ideal for hot food
If the delivery is only for hot products, no problem — students also have a solution. The Biotech team, from Barra Bonita (SP), created the Ideal Box, a sustainable thermal backpack with a heating system so that food arrives warm at its destination.
A bag is made from recyclable 100% material and covered with coconut fiber, a material that enhances thermal action by 20%. The heating system is guaranteed by a peltier tablet and has autonomy for 5 deliveries before being recharged.
Drone for the absent
The Robôbaio team, from Lages (SC), created FOREVER, an acronym for Organizational Facilitator Responsible for Electronic Deliveries. This device is a drone with a camera that assists delivery people in those moments when the person is not at home to receive the order. Instead of returning without delivering the meal, the delivery man attaches the package to the drone and flies it to the recipient's home to deliver it safely.
Delivery to remote places
Not all delivery addresses are easily accessible, which creates a logistics problem, especially when transporting medicines at a certain temperature. To resolve the issue, the Dragon Bots team, from Barra do Piraí (RJ), created packaging and a solution to transport the product to remote districts of the city.
The packaging, called Dragon Farmacy, is attached to a school bus, which runs between São José do Turvo and Barra do Piraí. Residents of the district place their order at a pharmacy in the city of Rio de Janeiro over the phone and wait for the goods to arrive at the municipal school to collect them safely (a pharmacy employee accompanies the entire journey).
Sustainable, safe and loss-preventing packaging
The CLP robotics team, from Campo Limpo Paulista (SP), decided to create packaging that is both sustainable and safe for transporting pineapples. To do this, the students created a biodegradable packaging made with sugar cane bagasse. Transport in this packaging provides safety for those handling the product and prevents product loss until it reaches its destination.
Zero food waste
The logistics chain created by the Amigos Droids team, from Belo Horizonte (MG), connects small rural producers to the final consumer using the existing digital infrastructure of e-commerce. But there is a small difference in the business logic: first the product is sold and only then is it harvested and transported, eliminating waste.
“Fruit iFood”
The Garças de Botas team, from Ananindeua (PA), created an application called Logarça, dubbed by the members themselves as the “fruit iFood”. The team realized that there were problems in the logistics of distributing fruit and vegetable products between Ceasa de Belém — the closest supply center — and the fruit shops in the city. To get there, the route is not the safest and opening hours are difficult for those who live far away, from midnight to 8am.
The solution found was to create “fruit iFood” for deliveries of large quantities. The application connects fruit store owners with box owners at the supply center and delivery is made by trucks that work at Ceasa itself.
Hitchhiking that is a breathalyzer
The Robot World team, from Bacabal (MA), created a gas sensor that is implemented in the truck cabin and can detect alcohol particles expelled by the drivers' body (through breathing or perspiration). Anyone who has drunk alcohol is caught by the sensor, which first detects ammonia, carbon dioxide, benzene, nitric oxide, smoke and alcohol and then cuts off the fuel supply and triggers a warning alarm.
Service
To learn about these innovation projects, have contact with robotics and participate in workshops, free experimentation activities and installations open to the public, just visit the Bienal Pavilion, located in Ibirapuera Park, in São Paulo. Access is free.
SESI Robotics Festival
Biennial Pavilion, in São Paulo (SP)
May 27th to 29th
Free entry, with public access until 4pm
Friday (27th) from 2pm to 6pm
Saturday (28) from 9am to 6pm
Sunday (29) from 9am to 4:30pm
