Figure 2: Credit: Amazon/U.S. Patent Office (two of the various designs submitted) Amazon’s patent defines how these
day…). No word on how a tip was given.
Expect that package deliveries will
be more challenging due to weight, package sizes, and the value of the package all being factors as compared to a pizza or two. In the USA, the current regulations
require drones to fly no higher than 400 ft., limited to no faster than 100 and drones must remain within the pilot’s line of sight. This will change in time, as drone flight management systems evolve and can prove operational safety. Previously, Amazon had indicated that it eventually intends to operate between 200 and 500 feet. Amazon has stated it plans to fly drones weighing up to 55 lb. within a ten-mile radius of its warehouses, at speeds up to 50 mph with packages weighing up to 5 lbs. (for now). In 2017 Amazon filed for patents
for “multi-level fulfillment center for unmanned aerial vehicles,” which resemble beehive-shaped buildings to support its drone fleet (refer to the beehive diagram). A multitude of these centers would be positioned throughout metropolitan centers around the world.
buildings would contain multi- storied platforms for drone landings and take-offs. Safety mechanisms such as nets or foam to allow for malfunctioning drones would be designed in as well. Amazon already has rather intelligent robotics and inventory management systems in its warehouses which would be adapted to support these multi-level structures (as opposed to one-story warehouses). One of the more exciting design ideas mentioned in the patent is to position drones at higher locations for take-off, not only save precious power but also to minimize some of the noise from the drone’s rotors to those that may live nearby. These drone beehives would need to be linked to the ‘small-village- size’ warehouse centers that Amazon currently operates outside of major cities, probably outside of the drone’s range (for now). This means that those autonomous trucks that are coming soon to a road near you may be a delivery vehicle to supply the beehive centers, and more robots with a handful of human overlords will probably manage this.
FINALLY There is much to work out technically, politically and financially with this approach. There will be much resistance in heavily-congested urban centers to having beehives of drones buzzing around, and quite possibly to autonomous vehicles making deliveries as well. But we need to start somewhere, and the drone invasion will continue. Amazon will require further work to better integrate its cargo freight aircraft with regional warehouse centers, and then into beehive drone centers. If it eventually succeeds in doing so, it may be able to take over the US Postal Service and genuinely compete with FedEx, UPS, and other such companies on a grander scale for the B2B market a well. Some of this may have seemed like science fiction as recently as ten years ago, but now it is nearly a reality by combining existing aviation platforms with newer ones.
John Pawlicki is CEO and principal of OPM Research. He also works with Information Tool Designers (ITD), where he consults to
the DOT’s Volpe Center, handling various technology and cyber security projects for the FAA and DHS. He managed and deployed various products over the years, including the launch of CertiPath (with world’s first commercial PKI bridge). John has also been onic FAA 8130-3 forms, as well as in defining digital identities with PKI. His recent publication, ‘Aerospace Marketplaces Report,’ which analyzed third-party sites that support the trading of aircraft parts, is available on
OPMResearch.com as a PDF download, or a printed book version is available on
Amazon.com.
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