Outer Containers: Common Features

Overview

The boxes that are delivered to and collected from individual properties are small enough that an individual can carry a few at a time, or several on an appropriate hand truck. As we have learned from shipping containers, if we want to move things efficiently we have to be able to pick up and move a lot of these at once. Many individual boxes are therefore held inside larger frames, racks or shells designed to make storage, movement, filling or emptying them more efficient.

Attachment

Each box used in localnet can be attached to other boxes or to outer containers - both for security reasons and to make moving them simpler. A stack of several small boxes can therefore be joined together and pushed or pulled through the system as if it were a single larger box.

Modularity

.The systems are therefore designed to handle boxes that are any integer multiple of the size of the smaller box.

Connectivity

Many of the boxes include electronics and batteries therefore these have either metallic contacts and/or wireless power transfer and communications capabilities. The outer shells similarly have electrical contacts built into them to communicate with and charge the boxes as well as RFID sensors to detect which boxes are present within them.

Security

The latching mechanism by which boxes are connected together is also used to attach them to the outer containers until they are supposed to be removed. This protects them from accidental movement as well as from theft.