TECH TALK
2013 that small UAVs would be used to deliver packages to customers within 30 minutes of ordering. To this, there were some caveats: the package needed to be 5 lbs. or less, fit within a specific size, and be within a 10-mile radius of a drone-capable Amazon order fulfillment center. Although this has not happened yet for a multitude of reasons, Amazon is moving forward and is determined to make this a reality. The core concept of operating
a drone safely in a populated area is much more complicated than it seems. Amazon is developing its own Amazon air traffic management system. It is planning on operating these drones below an altitude of 400 feet for safety reasons, and that it needs to abide by stringent rules here in the USA. The general public is still very concerned about the safety of having remotely-controlled drones flying over them for good reason. Per FAA guidelines, drones will fly at low altitudes (below 400 feet). Keep in mind that that unlike autonomous cars and trucks, there are no fixed roads or objects for sensors to identify to use in navigating around, so GPS and wireless communications are the only means by which a delivery UAV can be controlled (that is, until better autonomous systems are designed by which drones can self-navigate to a pre-determined destination). But all of this is only a bump in the road as development moves forward.
OTHERS ARE AHEAD OF AMAZON Other companies are further ahead than Amazon, such as Zipline, which is using drones to distribute blood and vaccines in Rwanda and Ghana. This California-based company operates distribution centers around the planet with teams of local operators, and aims to “deliver medicine to those who need it most.” The company has an app (what else where you expecting?) that doctors use to place orders on-demand for any needed medicine. Delivery drones are loaded with the ordered products at Zipline’s distribution centers. They are flown quickly to any destination, parachuting down the order from a fixed-wing drone (which does not land anywhere except at the distribution center). Deliveries are within 30 minutes, and Zipline claims to be able to support hundreds of deliveries per day, per distribution center, under all weather conditions. This is a significant step forward for people in underdeveloped areas that need medical care and provides Amazon and other drone- delivery services with a blueprint for certain types of deliveries outside of urban areas.
Another notable competitor that
is already flying as well as well is Swoop Aero from Australia. It is also concentrating on the medical services delivery market in underdeveloped areas such as Vanuatu, where three distribution hubs have been set up to provide on-demand healthcare at 33 villages across nine different islands.
These drones land onsite, so take a different delivery approach than Zipline. There are many other such companies already testing or flying delivery drones, and here is a very abbreviated sampling of the other companies which have announced themselves: • Air Aid • Ali Baba/Shanghai YTO Express • Flirtey • Flytrex • FPS Distribution • Healthcare Integrated Rescue Operation (HiRO)
•
JD.com (China) • Matternet (backed by Boeing, based in Switzerland, and working with UPS and others as well)
• Wing (part of Google’s parent company, Alphabet) • WingCopter
AMAZON PLAYING CATCHUP Arguably, this is a typical situation for Amazon, since it enters markets after others create them and find ways to manage better and process operational aspects of such niches. As a point of reference, the very
first drone delivery pizza was back in November 2016 by Domino’s, along with its drone delivery partner Flirtey, delivered an order at a customer’s door at 11:19 a.m. in Whangaparaoa, New Zealand, which is near Auckland (it was an order of a Peri- Peri Chicken Pizza and a Chicken and Cranberry Pizza — apparently they were out of pepperoni that
The core concept of operating a drone safely in a populated area is much more complicated than it seems. Amazon is developing its own Amazon air traffic management system.
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DOMmagazine.com | june 2020
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