A drone is an aircraft without any human pilot, crew, or passengers on board. UAVs are a component of an unmanned aircraft system (UAS), which includes adding a ground-based controller and a system of communications with the UAV. Nowadays road transport is the first preference for the logistic industry. Everything is to be delivered now by road transport. But due to crowded places and congested areas, it becomes difficult to supply any item in less time. So to avoid late delivery & to save time, drone delivery is the best option for now or in the future. Pizza delivery drones are going now in the USA.
Delivery drone technology is a pilotless aircraft used to deliver products, packages, medical supplies, food & other essential things. These types of drones have 4 to 8 propellers used for developing thrust. These drones are powered by a Li-Po battery & controlled by the remote. These drones are with GPS, cameras & other control units. So, it is easy to see locations on google Maps & able to deliver any item at the desired location with the help of the camera.
Table of Contents
Applications of Delivery Drones.
Healthcare
Delivery Drones are more useful in the healthcare industry because they can fly remotely & able to deliver or access crowded areas easily compared to vehicles.
Drones will be the best choice for the delivery or transport of medical products like a vaccine, blood medical & pharmaceutical samples.
In this COVID-19 pandemic, drones are used to deliver personal protective equipment, test samples & other in the USA. Zipline is the most sustainable delivery drone that plays a vital role in delivering more than 65,000 medical needs in 2020.
Food Delivery
Nowadays, delivery drones for food are the most discussed topic due to an announcement by the CEO of Amazon, Mr. Jeff Bezos. An American company Amazon, drone delivery team performing to develop drones (Amazon blimp) that can deliver food & packages.
It is helpful due to the delivery of items very fast. In urban areas, due to crowded & congested spaces, it is difficult to find a delivery address and to reach them. But it will be possible with the help of the delivery drone service. In the upcoming years, food delivery drones will be the trend.
Postal Delivery
So many drone delivery companies from Singapore, Australia, Germany, Switzerland & Ukraine have developed & taken trials on the drones which are used for postal delivery. It will make the delivery of postal documents less time.
Farming
Today, farmers are not doing farming with the old methodology. They are doing smart farming. They are using drones for various farming applications. Due to that cost get reduced.
Delivery Drone Implementation by Countries.
In 2014, the Prime minister & cabinet minister of the UAE (United Arab Emirates) announced a plan to launch drones for civilians. They are using these drones for eye recognition systems and fingerprints to deliver important documents like ID Cards, licenses, passports, and emergency services.
In 2016, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) gave permission in the USA to use drones weighing less than 25kg, can fly up to 120-meter maximum height, and speed should not greater than 160km/hr.
In these rules, they have strictly mentioned that the qualified person can operate these drones, he should be at least 16 years old & in only daytime, these drones can be used.
Amazon delivery drones.
First time at the conference of LAS Vegas, Amazon declared its first electric delivery drone. It is in a hexagonal design and has very few moving parts.
These drones are equipped with full of sensors like thermal sensors, visual sensors, and ultrasonic sensors. These sensors are designed in houses as per the need & use for the application.
Regular camera & infrared camera is used to get a detailed view of the surrounding. These drones have advanced computing system which runs a variety of machine-learning module to keep these drones safe.
With these technologies, it becomes possible to analyze things far away, like other aircraft, birds coming in the way while flying, and people & objects which are near the landing area. These kinds of advanced features make Amazon delivery drones very special.
Delivery Drones Companies & experiments.
Since 2011 most companies ware working on drone delivery development projects. Some are doing trials on their prototype, whereas some doing deliveries through a drone. Lets we will see this in detail.
Before 2016-trials & prototypes of drone delivery companies.
| Month & Year | Company | Country or City | Description |
| December 2013 | Research project of the Dalsey Hillblom and Lynn (DHL) | – | The drone name Parcelcopter delivered a quantity of medicine. |
| July 2014 | Amazon | USA | Worked on around 10 amazon drone prototypes and sent them to the FAA for testing on them. |
| August 2014 | Google, Google Wing | Australia | Working on the google drone which can deliver packages & products. |
| February 2015 | Alibaba partnering with YTO Express | China | They have started drone delivery trials in some cities in China. |
After 2016-trials & prototypes of drone delivery companies.
| Month & Year | Company | Country or City | Description |
| March 2016 | Flirtey | USA | Drone delivery in the urban area of the US by the fully autonomous FAA-approved drone. |
| April 2016 | Central Gov. Japan with Chiba city research institute & Rakuten. | Naka, Tokushima | They have started drone delivery trials in the Urban area. |
| 2016 | Rakuten | Seaside Park in Chiba City, Japan | Delivery of Cargo done with the drones. |
| July 2016 | The partnership between 7-Eleven & Flirtey | USA | In the USA, they delivered frozen Slurpee by using FAA-approved delivery drones. They are launching the first commercial drone delivery for Dominos in New Zealand. |
| June 2017 | China | JD.com | Testing drones for delivering packages up to 33kg with a speed of 100km/hr. |
| January 2018 | Missouri | Boing | Working on a prototype of cargo drone delivery. |
| December 2019 | Kroger+ designed by Nuro | Scottsdale, Arizona | Started groceries delivery to their customers. |
| 2020 | UPS associated with Matternet | Raleigh, North Carolina | Started medical delivery trials with delivery drones. |
| 2020 | NHS associated with Wingcopter | Isle of Mull, Scotland | Carried out a trial on PPE kit & COVID-19 testing kit delivery with drones. |
Benefits
- Reduce road traffic-With the use of delivery drones, persons & their vehicles required to deliver packages get reduced. Hence traffic will get reduced.
- Reduction in delivery time- Due to high traffic & crowd in the urban area, it is difficult to reach the delivery location. But with the use of delivery drones, it will become possible to deliver packages in crowded & congested areas.
- Reduce pollution- Due to a reduction in traffic, pollution will also get reduced.
- Reduction in transportation cost- The cost of a vehicle, petrol, time of the delivery person, the time required to find a place & home will get reduced.
Conclusion
Drone Delivery makes delivery very simple. Delivery of food, packages, postal documents, cargo & many others will be possible with especially little time. So many reputed companies like the team of google drones & amazon delivery drones are working on delivery drones to make delivery very simple. The future of any delivery will be done.