Uncrew - Autonomous Vehicle & Mission Management Suite

Objective

When I joined DroneUp in 2023, our key customer was Walmart. DroneUp had partnered with the retail giant since 2021 to build out a drone-delivery network; by early 2023 the companies were operating hubs at dozens of Walmart stores, with plans to reach four million homes across six states. At the peak of the network in 2022 the service delivered more than 6,000 items from 36 hubs across seven states.

The business challenge was to make drone delivery efficient and scalable. Early flight operations required one pilot per drone, and the economics were daunting, DroneUp estimated it cost about $30 per package and aimed to reduce that to below $7. My role as Product Designer was to help conceive a platform that would allow one operator to manage multiple delivery missions simultaneously, reducing labor costs while meeting Walmart's expectations for on-demand order fulfilment.

Contribution

In this high-growth, start-up environment I helped lead the product design and UX/UI effort:

• User & market research
• Product definition
• Interaction & visual design
• Design system & prototyping
• Continued refinements

Features

• Multi-mission control: One operator can manage up to 25 deliveries at once, while managers oversee teams and balance workloads.
• Fleet & site management: Operators track drones, schedule maintenance, and configure launch sites with geofences and delivery zones.
• Ad-hoc mission creation: Users can quickly create custom missions for tests or repositioning without needing developer input.
• Scalability & efficiency: Automated route planning and one-to-many control enabled hubs to handle up to 500 deliveries per day.
• Regulatory & safety compliance: Built-in airspace checks and safety workflows ensured FAA Part 135 compliance for commercial delivery operations.

Results

Uncrew was instrumental in modernizing DroneUp's drone-delivery business. The platform turned the one-pilot-one-drone model into a scalable operation capable of supporting Walmart's ambitions. During the 2023-2024 period, DroneUp and Walmart completed thousands of deliveries and expanded to 34 hubs across six states. Though Walmart later consolidated its drone efforts with other providers, Uncrew remains a core asset in DroneUp's portfolio, enabling multi-mission control and site management for commercial delivery customers and laying the groundwork for future autonomy initiatives.