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Smart Modular Parcel Locker System using Internet of Things (IoT)

Conference Paper · November 2021

DOI: 10.1109/ICSET53708.2021.9612542

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Smart Modular Parcel Locker System using Internet
of Things (IoT)
Jing Zhi Ooi
School of Computing
Asia Pacific University of Technology and Innovation
Bukit Jalil, Malaysia
tp046375@mail.apu.edu.my
Abstract— The increase in use cases of last mile delivery is a
by-product from the increase in efficiency of globalized goods
transportation, to the point that it is applicable for non-
commercial endpoints, e.g., personal accommodation. With the
surge in use cases, there is an amplified cost in financial and time
resources from both logistic companies and the recipients as the
amount of endpoints rise. This paper details the development of
a proposed system aimed to alleviate the effect by offering
concentrated stopping locations to accommodate for different
logistic companies to deposit multiple parcels into while the
recipients collect them as needed through the implementation of
contactless deposit and withdrawal, as well as a modular style of
locker unit deployment in a scalable manner.
Keywords— Internet of Things (IoT), Modular, Parcel Locker,
Last Mile Delivery, Dimension Scanning
I. INTRODUCTION
The operation mode of parcel lockers suits the lifestyles
led by the modern man, for them being always available in a
constant location in a publicly accessible location is a key
point for someone who is not available in their homes during
working hours – the period when delivery companies schedule
their delivery attempts. These characteristics allow them to be
known as part of the Collection Delivery Points (CDPs)
family. Shinto, et al. [1] has found out that this issue allows a
variety of impacts on the societal level – the extra workload
for deliveries that results in a failure causes resources to be
spent making the delivery attempt multiple times, be it human,
economic, environmental, or financial-wise. Additionally,
there is a significant tilt in deliveries being made to residential
areas than to office buildings – an estimation done by IMRG
[2] where the figure of 540 million was found out as the
number of deliveries taken up by users of online shopping
platforms. As part of the online shopping experience, which
allows the consumer to receive a product without taking a
single step out of the comfort of their own home, consumers
are also to be in within the premises of the destination location
while the delivery attempt is being made (since mailboxes
aren’t the most parcel-friendly), and there is a need for a proof
of delivery to be issued by someone in the premise for
accountability. How CDPs come in to provide relief for this
situation is through reducing the number of failed deliveries
being made. Weltevreden [3], for one, suggested that through
reducing the overall number of delivery attempts, no
additional resources need to be exhausted for more attempts
to be made – with CDPs, attempts are successful from the first
try. Weltevreden [3] classifies parcel lockers as unattended
CDPs, with the attended category making up the rest of the
category slots. Parcel lockers as described in the paper utilizes
PIN codes to allow delivery by the carrier and collection by
the receiver. Mangiaracina, et al. [4] praised the parcel locker
as innovative and viable as a solution to the last mile delivery
industry. Iwan, et al. [5] compared parcel lockers to other last
Dr. Chye Cheah Tan
Faculty of Computing, Engineering, and Technology
Asia Pacific University of Technology and Innovation
Bukit Jalil, Malaysia
chyecheah.t@staffemail.apu.edu.my
mile delivery solutions, such as attended deliveries and
controlled access system, as part of their attempt to find out
the effectiveness of parcel lockers as a solution of the last mile
delivery industry in Poland.
According to Zeng, et al. [6], last mile delivery refers to
the transportation of objects from a source location to their
final destinations. The leaders of the logistic industry are
particularly interested in last mile delivery optimization,
which, when completed, brings both tangible and intangible
benefits to the table in terms of efficiency and effectiveness in
the deliveries. However, there are no definitive answers to the
question, as the the factors to be taken into consideration
changes with the location, making the process of looking for
a solution either a case-by-case basis, or a generalized
scenario that doesn’t address a specific problem. Zeng, et al.
[6] suggested that the scheduling of delivery routes
(determining the order of delivery stops according to the
service point and destination) to be one of the fundamental
issues to work with in context of last mile delivery. This
problem can be seen in papers using the heuristic approach.
The significance of optimizing last mile delivery increases
exponentially with the increase of e-commerce, which led to
more delivery vehicles on the road, as mentioned in the
opening paragraphs of [5]. According to the results of [7], the
key factors that affects delivery durations include:
Cooperation on the receiving end (long duration of time spent
waiting for receiver to accept), driver knowledge and
experience (driver pre-emptively knowing where to stop and
unload shortens the time taken in stops), etc.
Janjavic and Winkenbach [8], on the other hand,
approached the issue by categorizing the last mile delivery
optimization models currently available in the academia
society into the following:
• Placement of logistic facilities
• Reducing time spent while delivering
The proposed system aligns with the latter – by reducing
the number of stops being made during the delivery process,
and reducing the time spent in each stop, it is expected to be
able to shorten the overall delivery duration on a single route.
Under this system, delivery employees are able to fulfil a large
number of deliveries in a single stop, and eliminating the need
for the employee to operate the system manually (or even
learning how to operate it on the spot) serves to reduce the
time spent in the stop. These gains become significant after
being accumulated throughout the day.
This paper aims to develop a parcel locker system that is
easily modular and scalable, and at the same time offers high
learnability for user groups – delivery employees and
recipients – so that the time spent interacting with the system
to deposit and withdraw parcels can be reduced. The rest of
the paper is organized as follows: Section 2 highlights other of the device, the lockers of the box can be attached to or
systems that is available to the public with similar detached from the device securely. The number of lockers that
functionalities, followed by the system architecture in Section a device has can be suited to the demand in the area, which
3. Section 4 showcases the features in the implementation that can be gauged by the data being sent to a server. The modular
was chosen to be moved forward by the authors, and Section design also helps to keep costs low as the lockers can be
5 discusses the limitations that can be noticed in the current manufactured individually and be installed, in addition to
version of the system. The concluding remarks are given in being easy to be moved one by one, as opposed to moving the
Section 5. entire box if not modular. The contactless withdrawal feature
refers to if the user needs to operate a panel or buttons in order
II. SIMILAR SYSTEMS to perform the withdrawal process. The similar systems use a
numpad or touchscreen for user authentication. By using a QR
The similar systems that will be used are Parcel Locker code scanned by the device, the proposed system is able to
developed by Australia Post (PL), and PopBox developed by reduce threats that may cause by contacting objects in public
PopBox Asia Services (PB), based in Indonesia. area, while providing a fast and safe method of withdrawing
an object at the same time. Having to operate the device can
also be a time-consuming process, especially for a parcel
locker which is designed to reduce delivery time by reducing
travel time. Observations done on currently available PopBox
devices shows that a set of instructions on how to operate are
attached with the locker set for the delivery employees to
follow, and if the employee is not familiar with the device or
encountered with such problems, some will contact the
recipient to take the parcel in person, or return the parcel to
the delivery outpost. Given that these employees are from
different companies, they are not required by the company to
learn how to operate these devices, and often consumes more
time in their already tight schedule to operate them. Thus, the
proposed device will be developed with the idea of providing
a streamlined deposit process in mind through minimizing the
Fig. 1: The AusPost Parcel Locker in use. [9] amount of interactions that the employee will have with the
device, subsequently reducing the delivery time.
Feature/System PL PB PS
Targeted package √ √ √
deposit
Targeted package √ √ √
withdrawal
Delivery √ √ √
notification
Deliverer × √ ×
authentication
Withdrawal √ √ √
authentication
Contactless × × √
withdrawal
Fig. 2: A PopBox located in Bandar Sunway, Selangor, Malaysia Automatic × × √
[10] dimension
screening
The Table 1 highlights the main functions that is
available/not available in the systems. From the table, it can Modular locker × × √
be seen that the proposed system shares a few functionalities
with the similar systems. The special features that set the Table 1: Comparison of the main features between Parcel Locker
proposed system aside from the others are the automatic (PL), PopBox (PB), and the proposed system (PS).
dimension screening and the modular locker features. When a
parcel is delivered to the locker, it is placed in a space built in III. SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE
with the device, which contains various necessary sensors.
The dimensions (weight, height, width, length) of the parcel is The proposed system is composed of three main
then taken, and the locker that can fit a parcel of said size is components: the locker base, the locker unit, and the web
then made available to the deliverer. This allows optimization application. The components are connected to each other as
to be made and to minimize insufficient lockers due to parcels shown in Fig. 3.
taking up lockers of the wrong optimal sizing. Another
feature, the modular lockers feature, is to allow for scalability.
Since different areas might have different demands for usage

Fig. 3. Infrastructure Design.
A. Locker Base
The hardware of the locker base consists of a Raspberry Pi
3B+, a camera module, an ultrasonic sensor, a light tube, and
an enclosure. A fiducial is permanently fixated at the bottom
of the enclosure, and the components are assembled as follows
(the parcel is included for referencing purposes):
Fig. 4: Design Plans of the Locker Base.
Fig. 5: Design Plans of the Locker Base (Bottom View)
Software-wise, Python was chosen to be used to write the
script for the main process. The script is continuous once run.
The locker base is designed to have little interaction with the
user groups to enforce learnability and affordance, and thus, is
devoid of a feedback system such as a screen or buttons to be
pressed. Git is built into the Raspberry Pi OS and will be used
as the main tool for deploying and updating the script remotely.
The locker base plays an integral role in enforcing
contactless deposit and withdrawal of parcels. The next
subsection discusses the thought process behind the selected
dimension scanning feature – the function that allows parcels
of different sizes to be determined to be deposited into locker
units of suitable sizes in the system.
1) Dimension Scanning
The method proposed initially was the pixel-per-unit
system, where the ratio of the measured pixel length to the
known real length of an object is compared to the measured
pixel length of another object to obtain the unknown real
length of said other object:
Fig. 6: Wireframe of the layout of the scanning platform during the
dimension scanning process.
𝑝0 𝑤0
= (1)
𝑝1 𝑤1
𝑝0 = the number of pixels taken up by the fiducial on the
width side,
𝑝1 = the number of pixels taken up by the object on the
width side,
𝑤0 = the actual width of the fiducial,
𝑤1 = the actual width of the object.
Considering Fig. 6 and the formula that immediately
follows, 𝑤1 , being the metric to be measured, is unknown;
while the other values are either obtained through image
processing or initially known by the system. The same logic
applies to the length of the object. However, this working
concept assumes that the pixel-per-unit ratio of the fiducial is
the same as the pixel-per-unit ratio of the parcel, which is
almost never the case for an object with a non-zero height.
Consider Fig. 7.
Fig. 7 Two objects of identical height, ℎ1 and ℎ2
Two objects of identical height, ℎ1 and ℎ2 is placed side
by side. From the perspective of the camera (the reader), they
are identical in height, as is the case. However, this is not true
from the perspective of an observer having the objects aligned
at the z-axis (depicted as the circle in the figure shown). From
the perspective, the respective heights of the two objects are
observed as such, with the concealed object outlined in dotted
lines:

Fig. 8: ℎ1 and ℎ2 , as seen from the perspective of the observer.
The z-axis is introduced to the proposed system with a
layout as shown in Fig. 9 – 𝑤1 is viewed by the camera as
being a different value from 𝑤2 , which is never captured. 𝑤1 ,
when used in a pixel-per-ratio comparison with 𝑤0 as per the
initial method, shows up to 40% discrepancy which value
increases with the height of the object.
Fig. 9: Rough layout of the scanning area of the locker base. The
position of the circle indicates the position of the camera.
To combat this issue, the general formula to calculate the
focal length of a camera is used as a constant point of reference.
[11]
𝑝ℎ
𝐹= (2)
𝑙 Fig. 11 does not match for format, the locker base reaches for
𝐹 = focal length of the camera;
𝑝 = length of on an object to measure in terms of
pixels;
ℎ = distance from the camera to the object to measure;
𝑙 = actual length of the object to measure.
Through F being constant, simple algebra was used to
allow for a new algorithm to be used for the use case:
𝑝0 ℎ0 𝑙0
= (3)
𝑝1 ℎ1 𝑙1
𝑝0 = length of the fiducial in pixels;
𝑝1 = length of the parcel in pixels;
ℎ0 = distance between the camera and the scanning
platform;
ℎ1 = distance between the camera and the top of the
parcel;
𝑙0 = actual length of the fiducial;
𝑙1 = actual length of the parcel.
Of all the 6 values involved in the formula, only 𝑙1 is not
initially known or obtained from processing the image taken,
and thus can be obtained through calculation.
That concludes the proposed solution to the measurement
discrepancy issue caused by the natural phenomenon that is
the depth of view, as a side effect of determining the length
and width of a parcel from the top. Through experimentation,
the new algorithm shows a 30% increase in accuracy, and has
about 7% maximum offset in the tests occurred. Fig. 10 shows
the cross-section view of the locker base. The height of the
parcel is calculated through the difference between a known
full distance, ℎ0 , and the distance between the sensor and the
parcel (taken live), ℎ1 .
Fig. 10: Cross-section view of the locker base.
2) Activity Reporting
The locker base is designed to report every locker and
parcel activity to the web application for logging purposes.
The parcel activity reporting takes advantage of the QR code,
usually attached on the outside of the parcel that contains the
tracking number of the parcel. The value of the QR code is
always assumed to be unique is used to identify parcels when
placed. Fig. 11 shows the processed image of a parcel having
its dimensions scanned – the value used to identify the parcel
internally is CJMY214001535545R. The script running on the
locker base identifies the endpoint to report to depending on
the exclusion of a certain known format of the withdrawal QR
that is internally generated. Since the QR code obtained from
the /parcel API endpoint.
Fig. 11: Processed image of a parcel having its dimensions
scanned.
B. Locker Unit
The locker unit is a physical component that serves the
purpose of holding parcels. It receives commands to lock or
unlock from the locker base through wireless MQTT
connection. This ensures that the connection will not be
limited by hardware configurations (e.g., lack of sockets/ports,
serial disruption) and can be scaled horizontally easily,
enhancing the modularity of the system. The units are also not
tied down to a particular locker base, which allows the units
to be assigned to a different area as required, depending on the
demand in a specific area. The current implementation utilizes
a simple motor lock that cycles between two modes to impede
the door from being opened. The hardware involved includes
a chassis, an ESP8266 microcontroller, a DC motor, a DC
motor bridge, a push button, and two 18650 battery cells
connected in series. They are physically connected as shown
in Fig. 12.
Fig. 12: Pinout diagram of the locker unit.
The series connection of 18650 cells allows the
simultaneous powering of the microcontroller and motor
bridge. Software-wise, the ESP8266 microcontroller is
flashed with ESPHome, which is essentially a wrapper around
C++ that is compiled from YAML configuration files. Despite
being unable to carry out customized functions in an orderly
manner unlike C++ or MicroPython, the proposed system
does not require intense calculations from the unit – it only
needs to know to reply when queried, which is perfect for
ESPHome.
C. Web Application
The web application serves as a mediator from the user
groups and locker bases to the database – the front-end allows
the recipients to perform user-centric functions, e.g., register
account, login, logout, register parcel, view parcel status,
withdraw parcel, etc. A web application was chosen over
native mobile applications out of consideration that web
applications have low requirements and development issues.
The proposed system uses the Django web framework to
manage the application, and makes good use of its object-
relational mapper (ORM) to handle database transactions,
with the other end powered by PostgreSQL. The web
application also holds the API endpoints to be contacted by
the locker base, to report the activities as observed by it upon
Fig. 13: Flowchart of the parcel lifecycle as dictated by the proposed system.
the locker base itself and the parcels. All activities taken by
the locker base and the parcels are separated by type in their
respective tables, and can be optionally associated with each
other. The web application abstracts the addition of the locker
and parcel activities depending on the endpoint called and
parameters supplied.
The lifecycle of the parcel within the system is shown in
Fig. 13. This shows the registration, deposit, and withdrawal
processes, combining the functionalities of all three
components of the system.
IV. SYSTEM EVALUATION
A series of testing procedures were performed by the
author and four testers on the proposed system through both
white box (unit + integration) and black box testing (user
acceptance). The unit and integration testing procedures has
involved meticulous steps for each component to ensure they
are able to satisfy the objectives listed down in earlier sections.
These testing, paired with user acceptance testing performed
with the help of representatives of both main user groups,
helped the author in identifying the following limitations in
the current implementation of the system and highlight any
future improvements if required.
A. Implementation
The dimension scanning method proposed using the
original algorithm is highly dependent on the accuracy of the
height taken to return an accurate value of the dimensions.
Tests have shown this to be wildly inconsistent due to
fluctuations in electric current. The current version of
implementation finds a median between 15 height
measurements to overcome the difference caused by
fluctuations, with the speed of the dimension scanning
sacrificed in the process (additional time used to scan height
additional number of times). Any limitations that come with
using computer vision/camera as an input also applies – edge
detection and object recognition performance depends on
environmental factors such as lighting, height of the camera,
height of the parcel (if it blocks the fiducial), colour of the
packaging of the parcel (if it is close to the colour of the
platform, then edge detection may work poorly). A suggestion
to be used in future renditions is to affix the fiducial in the
middle of the platform and the pixel values be measured
during start-up and stored in memory.
 That way, the fiducial can be blocked during the
measuring process, eliminating a factor that may cause
inaccurate object recognition. Future renditions may need to
take extra care to enforce a method to physically secure the
locker base and units together in a way that doesn’t affect the
modularity critically – too little physical security may lead to
the locker unit itself be taken away with the parcel inside,
while too much may cause the changing of locations of
singular units to be difficult, decreasing the modularity.
In trying to reduce interactions between the users and the
locker base, there are no feedback systems being implemented
– this may cause the user experience to take a hit because
failures are processed silently and are not presented to the user
to suggest other actions that can be taken.
B. Concept
The limitations in the concept itself is critical to the
feasibility of the proposed system. One such criticality is that
the proposed system is designed to be independent from the
logistic companies that deliver said parcels, which inspired the
lack of need of interaction between the delivery employee and
the locker base – they do not need to learn to operate the locker
base which they may or may not be unfamiliar with. The
registration of the parcel is also separate from the creation of
the parcel itself, where the user registers the parcel into the
system after the parcel is confirmed to being transported. This
characteristic may lead to unwanted use cases – the current
implementation, theoretically, will allow for any user to
register a parcel with a custom QR code attached, and the
value of the QR code set as the tracking number when
registering the parcel into the system. This could lead to the
lockers being used to host unwanted or illegal transactions.
Additionally, recalling the limitations in the
implementation, it is unthinkable for logistics companies to
not own data about the dimensions of the parcel themselves.
Hence, it is reasonable to propose that collaborations or
support of major logistics companies should be a significant
improvement to the concept in terms of financial and
performance – the information of the parcel can be submitted
by the logistics company into the system once the order is
being made and the internal system detects that it is the
proposed system that was set as the destination, thus
eliminating the need for users to register for an account or
register the parcels themselves. The dimensions of the parcel
can also be directly associated with the information of the
parcel itself, reducing the time needed to scan dimensions
even more, allowing for a streamlined operation where data is
exchanged behind the scenes.
V. CONCLUSION
In this paper, a modular parcel locker system is proposed
to allow for unmanned parcel deposit and withdrawal in a
scalable and sustainable fashion through the use of IoT, with
an original take on the measurement of dimension of objects
from a mono-directional setup being developed for the user
case. The proposed system provides a baseline for future
attempts to improve the last mile delivery process to work
upon.
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