How drones are used for delivery services

There is a lot of buzz around tech companies using drones for delivery-related services. Some companies even claim to have started to implement and test these services. Whatever the case, most of the time this idea is seen as a mere fantasy that is not ready to be fulfilled soon enough. Let’s take a look at what are the real prospects for using drones as delivery services.

Premium Air:

Recently, we came across an ad for Amazon Prime Air featuring Jeremy Clarkson. In that ad, a girl has a soccer game later that morning. She doesn’t have the left stud because her dog is nibbling on it. Her father, instead of getting angry or irritated, acts rationally and orders a pair of soccer cleats online. The order is sent to the Amazon warehouse from where the package is installed on the drone. The drone takes off like a helicopter and flies to its destination. It is an intelligent drone and knows how to avoid any obstacle if it comes its way. When it is close to its destination, a message is sent informing the family that the package is nearby. In thirty minutes, the pair of shoes is delivered to the house and everyone is happy. The content of the advertisement was quite amazing and promising. However, what remains to be seen is how soon it will go into action. The ad categorically mentioned that the video of the drone flying was not stimulated, but real. So we know that Amazon drones are ready and can fully function. Even the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) gave Amazon permission to start testing its drone.

Project wing:

Another big tech giant working on drone delivery is Google X. Google X is a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc. Google X is a half-secret research and development facility that works on some pretty cool projects. The autonomous car is one of Google X’s projects. The project in charge of using drones for delivery is Project Wing. It’s similar to Amazon Prime Air except the Google drone doesn’t land. It hovers over its destination location, lowers the package, and takes off once the package has been placed in the desired location. This project was announced at the end of August 2014. By then they had already been working on it for two years. However, those who work on it admit that it won’t be functional anywhere in the near future.

medical applications:

Dronlife: Some students in Spain are inventing a drone that will help move organs from one place to another without interrupting traffic. Can you just believe it? This idea was initially submitted as an entry for a contest. In the same year, in the United Arab Emirates, the ‘Drones for Good’ competition was held and $1 million was offered for a design that would lead to better life improvement. One of the successful finalists was Dronlife, which is an unmanned aerial vehicle to be used to transport organs and laboratory materials. It was designed by 4 young women students from the Escuela Superior de Diseño Industrial de España.

Dronlife did not win the competition, but it did attract investors including David Carro Meana, president of a business school in Spain, who with some of his colleagues launched a company to market the product. Another partner, Ricardo Blanco, is helping to improve the technology. It is currently in the final phase of development and has attracted funding from a private company in India and is scheduled to begin flight testing in India.

Zipline Inc: It was also recently announced that the Rwandan government is in agreement with a US-based company to build infrastructure for drones that would be used to deliver medical supplies across the country. The deal will see Zipline Inc. build three drone ports in the country.

Disaster Relief:

In addition to improving medical conditions, drones can also play an active and increasingly important role in disaster relief. Whether it’s an earthquake or a flood, drones can be used to transport food and medical supplies to affected areas. Drones are lighter than aircraft and helicopters and therefore could move quickly to and from affected areas. They will also be able to assess the situation.

Not just during natural disasters, drones can also come in handy in man-made disasters like wars. Judging from the current political scenario of this world, it is quite clear that wars will continue and thus the need for drones for humanitarian relief efforts will become inevitable.

Obstacles:

Regulations – The main issue that could make it difficult to use drones for deliveries is regulation. The FAA has yet to produce a comprehensive manual on the laws and regulations related to drones and delivery services.

Weight: The second problem is weight. It is obvious that drones could not transport large amounts of packages. Amazon’s Prime Air weighs around 55 pounds, while Google’s drone weighs just 19 pounds. So, they would be carrying weights less than their weight. We have yet to see how they would fly if they had to carry weights larger than their size. And if they can’t find a solution, then there’s no point in simply being able to deliver only shoe boxes. If this service is going to run, it should be able to transport all kinds of packets.

Obstacles:

Drones cannot fly above 400m. So in a city with tall skyscrapers or in forests with tall trees, drones could not work efficiently.

In conclusion, using drones for delivery services is a very good idea. The vision of having drones deliver everything in 30 minutes and using airspace like trucks use roads is quite an exciting idea. However, much remains to be done to put it into practice. It is necessary to take various factors into account and solve the obstacles one by one. This cannot be possible until all stakeholders work together.