Cambridge Consultants has developed a new drone delivery concept that is able to place items directly into customers’ hands, without the need for postcodes or landing mats.
DelivAir uses the GPS on a person’s smartphone to pinpoint their location, with the drone receiving updates in flight to track if someone is on the move. Once within visual range, the drone switches to precision optical tracking and a 3D imaging and ranging system to locate and authenticate the recipient, who also receives an alert that the delivery is imminent.
As the drone hovers directly above, the LED flash on the customer’s smartphone sends a coded message to verify identity. The package is then lowered into the recipient’s hands, using a stabilising winch to keep it steady. Once in the customer’s hands, the package is unhitched by the recipient and the drone returns to its base.
“Drone delivery is fast and ideal for something that is needed immediately. In that case, a consumer wants a delivery directly to them as a person – not to a location,” said Nathan Wrench, head of the industrial and energy business at Cambridge Consultants.
“Our DelivAir concept has the potential to revolutionise the delivery process, by removing the address restriction that other drone technologies are limited by. We are taking cloud retail to the next level, delivering out of the clouds and into your hand.”
According to Cambridge Consultants, the concept would be ideal for emergency situations, such as delivering a first aid kit to a hiker, or an EpiPen or defibrillator in a life-saving situation. It also has potential for disaster relief, bringing essential components into remote regions. At the other end of the spectrum, it could simply be used to airdrop a puncture repair kit, some flowers and a burrito, in order to avoid the slightly different type of disaster depicted in the video below.
What an opportunity to ‘put the cuffs’ on wrongdoers?
I really hate to say this but isn’t this an ‘ideal’ assassination weapon? It makes me worry about future security risks.
Aside from the potential for terrorist use, how on earth do they manage a signed for receipt? And what of the drone is ‘plucked’ out of the air before it gets to the destination. This technology smacks of trying to find a (nother) use and expand the potential sales, because it can be done, without regard to whether it needs or should be done! And obviously it’ll only work within a short distance and time from warehouse. Which means a proliferation of smaller warehouses and associated delivery trucks to feed them! Blame it on the drone when it goes wrong! And, the more thought put into this the greater the number of flaws that come to mind. Such as; it means recipients have to go outside to meet the drone, they have to be in VERY close contact with it and the spinning blades, the package has to be waterproof or only deliverable in dry and calm weather, one package per drone flight, and so on.
It’s OK. As we know, a bike helmet removes any and all risk. 🙂
A nice proof of concept.
From a practical point of view I wonder
1] What range has the drone?
2] What will a delivery actually cost?
3] What are the risks of pulling the drone out of the air by the tether?
4] Can the boxes be re-used or will they create even more landfill? (They looked cardboard so perhaps they can be recycled, still a waste of resources).
5] What is the stock of the warehouse? Will there be a matching service where DelivAir orders the puncture-repair kit from a cycle shop and sends a drone with a box to collect it? This would seem to make more sense than DelivAir trying to warehouse all the things that might be ordered but will add additional delay and presumably cost as shop assistants stand outside waiting to fulfil DelivAir orders.
Hi Ekij,
1) Range is a few miles, but its just a prototype. A UAV capable of transition flight would be required for longer flights, but the principle would be the same.
2) I can’t really answer, but there are some interesting articles out there showing how drone delivery could be a very efficient (quick and cheap) means of last mile delivery
3) The risk is mitigated as we’ve built in a means for detecting the winch motor torque; once it reaches a threshold, the tether is released and the drone flies away. This means the potential thief has only 10p worth of fishing line to show for their efforts
4) The boxes can certainly be reused, in fact we’ve envisaged any box to be delivered. The only required addition is a card shroud to be put round it.
5) Finally you’re quite right with regards to needing massive warehouses. It’s possible these systems could be sold to private businesses, or a large warehouse holds them, or as you mention they can be used for peer to peer delivery. The possibilities are endless!
Thanks for your interest!