Cut-off North Sea island: Oh crap, ferry's been and gone. Need milk. SUMMON THE DRONE A drone parcel delivery trial in Germany solves air traffic control problems by having nothing-but-drones airspace and no flying over buildings. The parcelcopter, a squat buggy-looking thing, is a four-engined remotely controlled helicopter with a parcel pod fixed to its belly between four curved landing struts. Parcelcopter …
"Don't be silly.. Where would you mount the 4 little motors?"
Ask the Dutch chap who turned his dead cat into a quad copter...
Though seeing a dead cow with legs splayed and udders hanging down and flapping in the downwash does bring a certain set of images to mind...
Hmm, a swimming drone battling waves and currents in a fluid as dense as dihyrogen monoxide (made denser by various salts, glycolypids etc) vs a flying drone battling currents in a largely nitrogen gaseous environment (okay occasionally made denser with the above mentioned fluid in gaseous or fine droplet form)? Which is the easier engineering and energetics challenge?
"Shirley, if the weather is bad enough to preclude full size flights, or sea voyages, then the drone stands no chance?"
There's no mention of weather in the article. It says "During the trial it will fly when ferries from Norddeich and piloted flights are not available" which implies that it will fly between ferry sailings or after the last sailing of the day when there are also no pilots available to fly out for very urgent small consignments such as medical supplies.
Ok, weather does get a mention further down the article, but only in reference to the typical weather for the area. Weather bad enough to preclude ferry sailings or piloted aircraft would also preclude small drones such as this one.
A number of commenters further down also seem to have missed this point.
Hmmm, dodging duelling cycle couriers (easy to see/hear etc) vs having a delivery drone and cargo drop on your head without warning because too fat kids got too 'gamified' and forgot it was actual meatspace they were flying in? Which would you choose?
Also we are used to checking both ways when crossing the road, hard to do when you are constantly scanning the skies for falling drones.
Then I saw those dreaded initials DHL. Those jokers might as well adapt a trebuchet and fling over the packages. or only the fragile ones.
Incidentally, what happens if you are out? Does the drone just jettison the package in the sea and make for blighty?
And finally, a drone delivered my parcel this morning. Name of Kevin.
It's time to give serious consideration to installing city-wide pipes for goods delivery. Just as we have water pipes leading to every house, we could have an Amazon pipe - no more than two feet wide - delivering small packages. Robot vehicles would scuttle through the pipes carrying goods. Once arrived at their destination, they could drop their payload (or wait for the recipient), then drive back to base automatically. No danger of bird strikes, air traffic, or poor weather. The pipes would be fairly cheap to build since they're just dumb pipes: no fancy engineering needed. All the smarts are in the robots, which can be upgraded as technology advances. Since they are ground-based, they would be much more energy-efficient than flying drones.
I have no idea what this would cost, but it certainly seems worth exploring.
Small-minded people always make fun of true visionaries.
They laughed at Irving Forbusher's stainless steel unbreakable balloon. . . and his design for the floor stand to sit it on . . .
They laughed at Joe Billy Bob's idea for the self-cleaning possum . . .
The laughed at George Martin's (C. F.'s younger brother) when he invented the steam engine powered player ukulele, and at Martin Estuaries revolutionary idea for decreasing the steamboat's weight by drilling holes in the hull. . .
They laughed at Eric Schmidt's idea for . . . Oh wait, that's a real one.
I could go on. . . Reader's rejoice, I will forebear.
It will be a real advance when appliance operators quit trying to invent drone service with off the shelf toys. One needs fixed wing aircraft to efficiently serve this remote island and quite frankly something like a Piper Cub or Cessna 172 with a human pilot would be cheaper and more reliable.
Spoiling an otherwise highly entertaining discussion, a serious comment and a follow-on to @Buzzword.
The UAV rotorcraft application is a good example of a company willing to take baby steps before launching an idea off the cliffs of hyperbolic speculation. As Neils Bohr is famously reported to have observed, making predictions, particularly about the future, is hard.
A few years ago @Buzzword's suggestion of a subterranean network of tunnel would have been a pipe dream. Today directional drilling is ubiquitously available, and the service affordable enough to be used for installing underground power lines for individual rural residential use. One can postulate all kinds of problems and scenarios under which it might not work. And, just as many where it might.
The overriding problem is that whatever poor schmucks do the heavy lifting of getting something of value are almost certain to face litigation from some technology holding company. This will be based on claims awarded by the USPTO for what amounted to an as yet unrealized theoretical concept.
(I once saw a patent for a "nanotechnology material" with a broad set of hypothetical useful properties, to be comprised of any material--liquid, solid or gas. If memory serves this was the same patent that had 55 overarching claims and no figures.)
Bad weather, heavy wind and rain, I think the drone will be found in Davy Jones locker... that being said, why not a pneumatic tube passing just around the locker. They have miniaturized a helicopter, why not a submarine?! I doubt any of the weather issues would be at play under water.
It sounds like a fair situation for a trial. Good safety, a demanding environment, and replacable payloads.
Guys, I depend on regular medication deliveries. I put my repeat orders in with time enough to fix things if something goes wrong. If I were a resident of Juist, I would know how much allowance to make for tide and weather.
This doesn't change anything, and if something went wrong with the flight it would hardly be a problem to replace a consignment. Though I have a suspicion that the my local Doctors/Pharmacy rely a little too much on a just-in-time supply chain. This is the pseudo-privatised NHS here, and they will do things differently in Germany.
Anyway, for those who didn't know, the DHL brand is the German Post Office. They're not some dodgy parcels company, or a subsidiary of Amazon, or whatever. They'll know where this might be useful. And, like the rocket mail between the wars, I bet the collectors will have some specially postmarked stuff to drool over.
Wouldn't a fixed wing machine be faster, less affected by buffeting/crosswinds, less complex, cheaper, more reliable, and potentially capable of lifting more cargo?
Launch and landing are quite probably more complicated but is largely a solved problem.
A hybrid quadcopter-fixed wing would be more interesting than a straight up QC.
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