A graduate student from the Department of Computer Engineering at the University of Technology (Hasan Mudhafar Qays) has been awarded a Master of Science degree in “Drone Based Mail Distribution System”, on 14 November, 2019 at the conference hall of the Computer Engineering Department.

In this thesis, a quadcopter will be used for mail delivery between many destination points. The quadcopter is executing an autonomous flight using the concept of companion computer. This computer acts as Onboard Control Unit (OCU). Raspbeny PI 3 (RPI3) is used as OCU to control the quadcopter movement by sending commands to the Flight Controller (FC). The concept of OCU is useful to perform an additional task to the autopilot and provide such smart capability such as: path planning and power estimation which cannot be done by the flight controller alone.

The proposed system consists of five modules to achieve the required goal; Autonomous flight module, path planning module, notification module, power estimation module and web interface module for easy used by the end-user.

The result of controlling the quadcopter give an error of three to five meters when reaching the destination point depending on GPS signal. The total flight time of the proposed quadcopter is6 minutes and 15second to visit five destination points with total distance of flight is 249.08 meters.

The discussion committee consisted of four members, Prof. Dr. Raad Hamdan Dhahir from Al-Mustansiriyah University, Engineering College, Electrical Engineering Department as Chairman, Asst. Prof. Dr. Safana Madhar Raafat from the University of Technology – Iraq, Control and Systems Engineering Department as a member, Asst. Prof. Dr. Bassim AbdulBaki Jumaa from the University of Technology – Iraq / Computer Engineering Department as a member and supervisor, and Dr. Ayman Dawood Salman from the University of Technology – Iraq / Computer Engineering Department as a member and supervisor.