smaller of the San Juan Islands have
any bridges for mainland access. We
had to rely on Med Flight insurance to
be helicoptered ‘off island’ in
emergencies.
Non-insured flights would have
been in the $35,000 category.
However, drone flights in the near
future might be able to supply on-island doctors with specialized
medications, transfer of critical blood
tests, and even unique medical
instruments.
Are Delivery Drones
Safe from Hijacking?
Another issue that has bothered a
lot of robot experimenters is what if
one of these drones gets ‘captured’
while on a delivery run and sold to an
unscrupulous buyer. For the price of a
pizza or something inexpensive on
Amazon, using a stolen credit card, a
bad guy could toss a net over a UAV
drone or just scoop up a mobile
version and put it into the back of a
van, then quickly take it out of town
while an accomplice in the back of the
van disables the power and removes
any tracking devices. The future will
offer us a lot of neat things, but along
with the future, we will
continue to have dishonest
people.
Drones
Hitching Rides
to Increase
Range
Amazon has
considered the use of trucks or busses
to assist their drones to increase the
delivery range as a recent patent filing
indicates. Tests that began over a year
ago show a prototype Amazon drone
actually delivering a shoebox to
someone’s backyard as seen in Figure
9. The four-prop quad appears to also
have a pusher prop in the back.
As part of the patent filing, they
also want to have the option of
landing their drones on a truck or bus
for a portion of the delivery route. The
drone will then depart the vehicle at
the nearest point of the route to the
customer’s house. Since most present
day drones have a limited range, this
will not only save energy but quicken
delivery times. It will also allow drones
with dwindling battery power or with
possible technical problems to land
back on one of the system’s trucks in
emergencies.
As Amazon executives have
stated, “There are a variety of
factors when deciding whether or not
to land a drone on an eligible vehicle,
Amazon sends a message to a
driver when it wants to land a drone
on a vehicle and the driver gives
permission for the landing and
confirms that the drone successfully
docked with the vehicle. If a drone’s
battery is about to die or some other
malfunction occurs, the company
would plan for the aircraft to land on
the first available vehicle, and then
Amazon personnel could set up a
meeting with the driver to retrieve it
at a set location. The FAA did drop a
‘bombshell’ when it changed drone
operation rules to allow only line-of-sight drone control, but Amazon feels
that it can prove the safety of its
intended services.
Mercedes Vans and
Starship Technologies
Robot Deliveries
Mercedes Benz’s Delivery Van
Division recently began
working with a robot
company, Starship
Technologies to develop a
relationship that uses the
car company’s vans as
‘motherships’ to bring
Starship’s small mobile
robots (shown in Figure
10) closer to a local delivery
area. The companies strive
SERVO 12.2016 63
Figure 8. CyPhy drone works for UPS.
Figure 9. Amazon drone
delivers a shoebox in a
backyard. Note the Amazon
target under the box.
Figure 10. Mercedes Benz and Starship Technologies’ delivery robots.