As technology is advancing, our way of living life is also changing continuously. Gone are the days when one has to jostle around to go to a big marketplace, surf around for your grocery, furniture, or food, buy it and then bring it home. In this today’s modern age world, we now have the ability to get delivered any stuff we need to our doorsteps. And as the demand is increasing for this, many corporates and tech giants are also looking for a better and more viable way to deliver our products. And in this demand, drone delivery is emerging as the biggest change which we can expect to disrupt the traditional delivery method.
A Drone (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) is an unpiloted aircraft that is mostly controlled through your phones or their controller and the drone comes in a variety of sizes depending upon the usage and ability. It was originally designed for military and aerospace industries but somehow found its way into the mainstream due to its efficiency and marvel control.
What is Drone delivery?
Drone delivery is a new delivery process in which a company uses a capable drone that can carry enough weight to deliver anything from medicines to parcels, food, or any product you need at home and much more.
Tech giant Amazon, which is the biggest and the largest e-commerce marketplace worldwide on the internet, has actually backed this idea and has even started the delivery system. They name it Amazon Prime Air and have promised to deliver any packages up to 5 pounds in 30 minutes.
There are other companies like Wing Aviation (owned by Alphabet) or UPS Flight Forward which are also toying with this idea, trying to transform the future into reality.
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How does Drone delivery work?
When the order is received, It makes its way to the usual assembling and packaging center, and then the product is perfectly packaged into the special delivery package which is designed to be carried by the company drone.
After the package is attached to the drone and the drone is carried to the open field known as the take-off spot. The drone then ascends vertically to the sky less than 400ft before bringing the journey toward the customer’s address. The drone has special senses like GPS, thermal, and Sonar to analyze the environment and avoid obstacles like wires, poles, or even birds.
When the drone reaches the customer’s address, it first scans for a safe landing spot. This could be a little tricky part because this process is still not fully finalized but we can assume that either customer lays some special mat to signal the drone for a safe landing or the customer can mark a special ground where the drone can put the package.
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What are the benefits of Drone Delivery?
One of the biggest benefits of using a drone delivery system is time-saving and low operation charges. Here is a list of the advantages of using a drone delivery system.
- A customer living near the warehouse will get their product in a very short time because the drone can take a direct and short route toward the customer’s address.
- It will cost low operational charges to the company as less labor is involved, which directly reduces the cost.
- Many advanced technological sensors or processes like VTOL (Vertical Take-off and Landing), 3D mapping, thermal sensing, and artificial intelligence will also be employed to increase the accuracy of delivery.
- It will be very easy for the remote areas or harsh places like a jungle, mountains, or even on the ship where the delivery van cant reach and products would be easily delivered.
- As drone delivery will become more prominent, it will help in reducing delivery vans which indirectly will help in less traffic and fewer carbon footprints.
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Future of Drone Delivery
In the future, as the Drone delivery system becomes more prominent and efficient, the demand and use of the delivery system will surely see it increase. Currently, the limit for the drone delivery package weight is 5lbs (2.3kg), it’s not like smaller packages like food or medical supplies can be delivered. Amazon has been working on this idea for quite a long and they are designing a lot of models for different environments like busy city areas or agile open rural areas.
The biggest challenge the drone delivery system is facing is the accuracy of delivery and accidents which could be dangerous for environments like major cities where it is not easy to find open space in which products can be delivered.
Amazon has patented a few solutions and already started to build some prototype buildings which would be like beehives and city center warehouses with multiple take-offs and landing spaces. Amazon’s CEO Jeff Bezos has always stressed the success of his company by constantly improving the end-to-end experience by customers. And with years of planning and expertise in e-commerce, it would be exciting to see how Amazon employs these drones to deliver thousands of products in less than 30 mins in the future.
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