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Category: Science and Technology / Retail

Fancy have something delivered by a drone? Here's how it works

Thursday, 15 Dec 2016 08:01:41

An Amazon delivery drone in flight. (Supplied: Amazon)

The first customer has received a drone delivery as part of Amazon's Prime Air trial in the UK.

Last week customer Richard from Cambridgeshire, in England's east, ordered a streaming media player and — more importantly — a packet of sweet and salty popcorn. Genius.

The delivery took just 13 minutes, with the drone touching down at Richard's home at 2:15pm (local time).

So, how does it work?

First, you place your order

To use Amazon's drone delivery service, you'll need to be located within "several miles" of one of their fulfillment centres — though an exact distance isn't specified.

Your desired items will also have to be stocked within said fulfillment centre.

The order also has to weigh less than 2.3 kilograms.

Once the order is received, it's prepared and packaged by staff before being fed down a conveyor belt and loaded into the drone.

The drone is propelled down an automated track.

And then we have lift off

External Link: Deliveries have to weigh less than 2.3 kilograms.

In the UK trial, the drones are permitted to fly during daylight hours when there are low winds and good visibility at heights below 122 metres.

They're currently not allowed to operate in rain, show or icy conditions.

The drones are fully autonomous and are guided by GPS, so there's no human pilot.

They land on their own too

But you'll have to have a custom landing pad to help them stick it.

External Link: The drone needs a clear space to land.

Richard's delivery took 13 minutes.

Then you can enjoy your popcorn

External Link: Sweet and salty is arguably the best popcorn flavour.

You probably got other stuff too. But it's mainly about the popcorn.

When can I expect my drone delivery?

Well, it might be a while.

At the moment, there are only two private customers included in the trial, but Amazon says it hopes to expand that to more customers in the Cambridgeshire area soon.

Amazon says the full service will "deploy when and where we have the regulatory support needed to safely realise our vision".

The when doesn't currently appear to include Australia, but there are development centres in the US, the UK, Austria and Israel.

So for now, it looks like Australia will be stuck using its drones for more mundane tasks, like tracking great white sharks.

A drone that will be used to track sharks on the NSW north coast. Photo: Not a delivery drone. Useful at beaches though. (ABC News: Tom Lowry)

AustraliaPlus


 

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