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Drone delivery of packages, and restricted areas for drones

GPS within 1cm, of course not. However, GPS within a few meters, then optical processing to do the last bit.

Even 15 years ago we had systems for hobby radio controlled helicopters that could optically station keep. We’ve got more processing power now, and with some helpers (e.g. if you use one of these services, you put a sticker on the landing zone) you could achieve touchdown accuracy.

I suspect however there is still a lot more work (and a lot more of VC’s money to be sucked up, and a lot more “Moller Skycars” to hoover up VC money) to turn this into a practical service.

Last Edited by alioth at 22 Mar 09:35
Andreas IOM

Nobody can say it can’t be done but there is so far to go.

Currently, a homo sapiens Amazon delivery operative will leave a package on your doorstep in heavy rain. He/she doesn’t give a ***t.

And he/she does have more brain than a drone is likely to have for, hmmm, at least a couple of years

And how many people have a table outside, nicely away from house walls, etc?

Only a couple of things wrong with that graphic

  • the hoover is a Dyson and they don’t work for long enough to suck up much VC money (but they look great)
  • most VCs don’t have a bullsh*t meter
Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Peter wrote:

GPS “within 1cm” ?? Hmmm, no.

This drone will change everything! The video says so. So why not?

ESKC (Uppsala/Sundbro), Sweden

Amazing stuff as I finally got round to watch the vid linked by @snoopy
here

Latest news from AvWeb:
FAA Grants Zipline Authorization For BVLOS Drone Deliveries

The FAA has authorized drone delivery and logistics company Zipline to make commercial deliveries using drones flying beyond the operator’s line of sight. According to the agency, Zipline will use its Sparrow drone, which releases payloads via parachute and is capable of travelling up to 120 miles, for beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) operations. Zipline received FAA Part 135 approval for long range drone delivery in the U.S. in 2022.

“For more than a decade, even the most advanced long-range drone deliveries in the U.S. required visual observers, stationed on the ground along a route, to watch the sky during the delivery,” Zipline said. “This historic decision will help enable broad integration of autonomous aircraft into the U.S. national airspace and make commercial drone delivery scalable and affordable.”

Zipline noted that its delivery drones are equipped with an onboard perception system that “uses ADS-B transponders that identify aircraft in the nearby airspace, as well as an acoustic avoidance system that uses small, lightweight microphones to detect and avoid other aircraft flying up to two miles away in all directions […]” The company reports that it has completed over 700,000 deliveries to customers and flown 50 million autonomous commercial miles with its drone platforms to date. In addition to the U.S., Zipline operates in Rwanda, Ghana, Nigeria, Japan, Kenya and Côte D’Ivoire

Last Edited by Dan at 19 Sep 08:32
Dan
ain't the Destination, but the Journey
LSZF, Switzerland

A new problem: how will you defend a country that becomes dependent on drones, against drones?

In Kyiv, they can shoot down any small aircraft and be reasonably sure that it is a Russian drone. If they couldn’t restrict drones without starving Grannies (meals on wings…) or bringing down the economy (deliveries) or medical services (there are places in Africa which I understand are now very dependent on drone deliveries of blood and medicine) then they would need to be very sure of being able to distinguish between friendly/unfriendly drones, and strategies such as GPS jamming would be out of play.

The pros and cons of each situation and each technology must be considered before adoption.
There are always consequences and someone, usually a government has to decide whether the good outweighs the bad and then mitigate for the bad.

France

I was talking to a guy from one of the couriers the other day and he said the current thinking is for the delivery driver to park up somewhere and then to use an FPV drone to drop off the packages to various houses.

This is quite neat, quick, and sidesteps all the numerous technological issues.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

It would be much more economical in rural areas. Unlike the US, we do not have postboxes to receive mail. Driver goes 100+ metres on rough track, delivers, drives back.
And for more remote houses – !!!

Maoraigh
EGPE, United Kingdom

The US post boxes can’t take packages of any size either, and are common only in some places, and in films The problems are actually huge, unless one requires the recipient to set up a “drop zone”, and accept that the package may get rain damage, etc, and that will work only for houses with space for it.

FPV delivery from a van parked not far away solves everything, including drone range.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom
119 Posts
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