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A
remote part of the Australian state of Queensland has been chosen by Google’s
clandestine research facility for testing the company’s future drone delivery
fleet. The system has tremendous potential to transport goods more quickly,
Google[x] claims, AP reports.
In
an operation dubbed ‘Project Wing’, two Australian farmers have been lucky to
become first Google[x] clients to get a first aid kit, candy bars, dog treats
and water delivered by drones in a test mode. The company reported of at least
30 successful deliveries made so far.
Google[x]
is the company’s ‘secret’ research facility, operating independently close to
the main Google headquarters. The laboratory’s activities are directed by
scientist and entrepreneur Astro Teller, while Sergey Brin, one of Google's co-founders,
is overseeing the operations.
Google’s
researchers are honestly saying that drone delivery system is on a very early
stage of development, “years
from a product,” but the future of this technology promises to be
very bright.
The first tests of Project Wing prototypes have shown that “hard work over the last two years has
resulted in a reliable system that can do an autonomous delivery,”
said Project Wing founder Nicholas Roy.
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Google
drones are using the convertoplane principle: vertical takeoff and landing
while flying in an ordinary propeller-driven aircraft mode.
A
peculiar characteristic of a Google drone is that it does not land to get a
parcel delivered, nor does it drop it from a height. To relieve itself of its
‘burden’, the drone hovers in place and gets the parcel down gently using an
electrical drum hoist. This is obviously for not getting some fragile goods
like an electronic device to get broken in the delivery process.
“Throughout
history there have been a series of innovations that have each taken a huge
chunk out of the friction of moving things around. Project Wing aspires to take
another big Chunk of the remaining friction out of moving things around in the
world,” said Astro Teller, Captain of Moonshots at
Google[x]. “Working together we
can get to this future I think surprisingly quickly.”
In any case, the future
seems to be around the corner: the Google[x] drones are already flying and they
land their cargo on the front lawn of the desired house.
“The
next phase is to take the momentum and the enthusiasm that we’ve built
internally and now drive it towards enabling the dream of delivering stuff more
quickly with proper and due safety,” said Dave Vos, Project
Wing Lead.
Google’s
major drone delivery rival, Amazon, is currently trying to obtain permission
from US Department of Transportation to carry out outdoor tests in the US.
Amazon’s
Prime Air initiative envisages the use of unmanned systems capable of carrying
small payloads over short distances. Just like Google’s Project Wing, the tests
of Amazon’s drones are currently taking place only in indoor facilities or
abroad.
Apart
from obtaining permission to perform flight delivery tests, which would
otherwise be considered illegal violation of
airspace in most countries, drone delivery has some obvious disadvantages.
A
weight limit for goods delivered is not a big problem, believes Amazon, which
hopes that the drones will be able to carry loads of several kilos – such
products are 86 percent of Amazon’s total deliveries.
But
how to deliver goods by air to customers that live in multistory apartment
buildings is an open question.
Also, high-density air
traffic of delivery and other types of drones could pose a real safety problem
for cities in the future, which would imply either creation of computer centers
monitoring ‘drone traffic’ to prevent their collision in the air, or limitation
of drone use to the suburbs and countryside only, where there would be enough
space for any number of flying vehicles.
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