Amazon's drones could PARACHUTE your shopping to your door
- System would let drones release packages to the ground while in mid-flight
- Could use magnets, parachutes or spring coils in the design
- Radio frequency could help drone direct packages to their destination
Amazon could be working on a new strategy for dropping packages from its delivery drones to your doorstep.
The e-commerce giant has received a patent for a system that 'can be implemented to forcefully propel a package from an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), while the UAV is in motion'.
The document describes using magnets, parachutes or spring coils to release parcels while the unmanned vehicles are in mid-flight – and radio frequencies could help guide packages to their destination.
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Amazon could be working on a strategy for dropping packages from its drones to doorsteps. The e-commerce giant received a patent for a system that 'can be implemented to forcefully propel a package from an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), while the UAV is in motion'.
In 2013, Amazon unveiled its secret research project which it claims will be the future of home delivery - packages delivered by drones.
The Internet shopping giant's chief executive Jeff Bezos said that he wants to use octocoptors to replace postmen and cut delivery times to just 30 minutes.
For the past four years, the firm has been finalizing designs, testing deliveries and battling regulations.
But in December 2016, the firm announced it had made its first delivery by drone and claimed it dropped off a package in just 13 minutes.
The drone left one of the firm's bases in Cambridge, UK and dropped off an Amazon Fire TV box and a bag of popcorn to a customer in the same county, although Amazon has yet to confirm how far the aircraft traveled.
And today, it seems they are one-step closer to releasing its drones to the public.
The patent, entitled 'Maneuvering a package following in-flight release from an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)', was filed in June 2015 and first spotted by Business Insider.
And it describes how Amazon's drone could modify the force applied to the package once it is sent propelled to the ground – allowing the parcel to fall at the right destination.
'The package delivery system can apply the force onto the package in a number of different ways,' reads the patent.
The document describes using magnets, parachutes or spring coils to release parcels while the unmanned vehicles are in mid-flight – and radio frequencies could help guide packages to their destination
'For example, pneumatic actuators, electromagnets, spring coils, and parachutes can generate the force that establishes the vertical descent path of the package. Further, the package delivery system can also monitor the package during its vertical descent.'
'The package can be equipped with one or more control surfaces.
'Instructions can be transmitted from the UAV via an RF module that cause the one or more controls surfaces to alter the vertical descent path of the package to avoid obstructions or to regain a stable orientation.'
It is also suggested that the drones will launched the packages and a geo-location, with a radio frequency located inside the package, which would receive data from the drone
It is also suggested that the drones will launched the packages and a geo-location, with a radio frequency located inside the package, which would receive data from the drone.
'The package can be equipped with one or more control surfaces,' Amazon wrote in the patent filing.
'Instructions can be transmitted from the UAV via an RF module that cause the one or more controls surfaces to alter the vertical descent path of the package to avoid obstructions or to regain a stable orientation.'
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