Passengers’ Safety Matters: Experiences of Deploying a Large-Scale Indoor Delivery Monitoring System

Xiubin Fan, Zhongming Lin, Yuming Hu, Tianrui Jiang, Feng Qian, Zhimeng Yin*, S.-H. Gary Chan*, Dapeng Wu

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Chapters, Conference Papers, Creative and Literary WorksRGC 32 - Refereed conference paper (with host publication)peer-review

Abstract

Delivering goods to many indoor stores poses significant safety issues, as heavy, high-stacked packages carried on delivery trolleys may fall and hurt passersby. This paper reports our experiences of developing and operating DeMo, a practical system for real-time monitoring of indoor delivery. DeMo attaches sensors to trolleys and analyzes the Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) and Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) readings to detect delivery violations such as speeding and using non-designated delivery paths. Differing from typical indoor localization applications, DeMo overcomes unique challenges such as unique sensor placement and complex electromagnetic characteristics underground. In particular, DeMo adapts the classical logarithmic radio signal model to support fingerprint-free localization, drastically lowering the deployment and maintenance cost. DeMo has been operating since May 2020, covering more than 200 shops with 42,248 deliveries (3521.4 km) across 12 subway stations in Hong Kong. DeMo’s 3-year operation witnessed a significant violation rate drop, from 19% (May 2020) to 2.7% (Mar 2023).
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings of the 21st USENIX Symposium on Networked Systems Design and Implementation (NSDI ’24)
PublisherUSENIX Association
Pages1883-1900
ISBN (Print)978-1-939133-39-7
Publication statusPublished - Apr 2024
Event21st USENIX Symposium on Networked Systems Design and Implementation (NSDI ’24) - Santa Clara, United States
Duration: 16 Apr 202418 Apr 2024
https://www.usenix.org/conference/nsdi24
https://www.usenix.org/conference/nsdi24/technical-sessions

Conference

Conference21st USENIX Symposium on Networked Systems Design and Implementation (NSDI ’24)
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CitySanta Clara
Period16/04/2418/04/24
Internet address

Bibliographical note

Research Unit(s) information for this publication is provided by the author(s) concerned.

Funding

We thank our shepherd and the anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments. This work was substantially supported by NSF China 62102332, CityU 21216822, CityU APRC 9610491, and CityU 11206023.

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