I wonder how much these things weigh total. It seems like most of them are so light they could fire a helium air bag and just float.
Drones and Autonomous Aerospace
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Abefroman
Naxxramas 1.0 Raider
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Put out a radius of automated battery swap towers. I would think the energy cost would be pretty low overall. How many kw to move a 55 pound drone 15 miles at 50mph Tuco?
This shit is exciting to me. These companies are big enough and invested enough to make this shit happen and they're smart enough to pull it off. They'll figure out a way to charge batteries and fly in rain, just you guys wait.
This shit is exciting to me. These companies are big enough and invested enough to make this shit happen and they're smart enough to pull it off. They'll figure out a way to charge batteries and fly in rain, just you guys wait.
Chukzombi
Millie's Staff Member
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Tuco
I got Tuco'd!
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Oh and something I forgot to mention, the value of drones goes down the higher the saturation of amazon/UPS/FedEx users. I don't know what the market saturation rates are but it seems like ordering shit regularly online is becoming more and more popular and convenient. You can imagine a future where instead of a UPS truck being able to service 3 square miles of homes it only services a neighborhood. In that case it's nearly impossible for a fleet of drones to beat a UPS truck on costs because they have to make the trip from the station to the home for each small payload.
Tuco
I got Tuco'd!
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It's the same problem as LEO delivery rockets have, and why Musk's rocket landing systems are possible: no matter how light the rocket is, if the payload is heavy the whole thing is heavy. This kind of incredible performance:
just isn't possible with a 10lbs package attached to it.
For 15 miles you'd probably get the most efficiency out of a drone with wings rather than a quadcopter. No idea what kind of kwh you'd need to move a 55lbs drone carrying 10lbs of payload 15 miles with state of the art tech. I don't think they are targetting 15miles of range, are they?
They'll buy some politicians.
Yes, the original video said 15 miles range.
Their drone also seemed to have a hybrid lift approach too.
"In response to a request from Greenwire, Shu estimated that a network of Amazon drones in the United States would use about 1,300 megawatt-hours of energy on its busiest day. That's based on Amazon data showing it shipped 26.5 million packages per day at its peak last year, about half of which were in the United States, and an assumption that about half of those packages would be eligible for drone delivery. Shu assumed Amazon would use drones similar to those now on the market, which would use a 200-watt-hour battery that would be recharged for each delivery."
TECHNOLOGY: Amazons drones are coming -- where will they get their power? -- Friday, December 6, 2013 -- www.eenews.net
Yes, the original video said 15 miles range.
Their drone also seemed to have a hybrid lift approach too.
"In response to a request from Greenwire, Shu estimated that a network of Amazon drones in the United States would use about 1,300 megawatt-hours of energy on its busiest day. That's based on Amazon data showing it shipped 26.5 million packages per day at its peak last year, about half of which were in the United States, and an assumption that about half of those packages would be eligible for drone delivery. Shu assumed Amazon would use drones similar to those now on the market, which would use a 200-watt-hour battery that would be recharged for each delivery."
TECHNOLOGY: Amazons drones are coming -- where will they get their power? -- Friday, December 6, 2013 -- www.eenews.net
Borzak
Bronze Baron of the Realm
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How much weight are they planning on carrying? I know my planes that weigh 40 pounds swings a 32" carbon fiber prop that turns 5k rpm to hover vertically. It's not a quadcopter but the prop alone can kill you or take a finger or in some cases an arm off if you're not careful.
Tuco
I got Tuco'd!
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The law will be adjusted to satisfy the industry. In general legislators have been eager to work with autonomy systems. UAVs require the most careful consideration because they are capable of asymmetrical warfare.
Yes. These won't be the toys people will be buying their kids for Christmas. The rotors will be considerably dangerous as will the mass of the robots and their payload.
Right now the industry is far beyond the legislators in terms of real government oversight to these things. UAVs have more control for security reasons, but legislators won't have enough clout to properly spend the money on government oversight until an amazon drone crashes into a wedding filled with pretty and rich white people.
There's a pretty powerful lobby forming of pro-autonomy businesses that will inevitably go to war against the lobbies of NIMBYs and TOTC(think of the children). It'll work itself out.
Malakriss
Golden Baronet of the Realm
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I would terrorize birds so bad with this. Except for falcons and eagles, which would pursue and destroy the drone so hard.
Bandwagon
Kolohe
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Most people that are heavily invested in the commercial drone world view Amazon's drone delivery as nothing more than hype.
Automating current air operations makes a lot more sense as a first step.
Personally, I think that any drone delivery outside the realm of time sensitive payloads (like organ delivery) is going to be large drone aircraft delivering to distro centers, and traditional delivery or pickup from there.
I'm half sober and on my phone, so that's about all I feel like typing right now. We do spend a lot of time de-hyping peoples ideas on drones, though. The thing I've found myself repeating a lot in the last 6 months is- "Yes, you can do almost anything with a drone, but drones are a practical platform in 10% of those situations. "
Automating current air operations makes a lot more sense as a first step.
Personally, I think that any drone delivery outside the realm of time sensitive payloads (like organ delivery) is going to be large drone aircraft delivering to distro centers, and traditional delivery or pickup from there.
I'm half sober and on my phone, so that's about all I feel like typing right now. We do spend a lot of time de-hyping peoples ideas on drones, though. The thing I've found myself repeating a lot in the last 6 months is- "Yes, you can do almost anything with a drone, but drones are a practical platform in 10% of those situations. "
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yeah i don't really get widespread/"do anything" appeal in the industrial/commercial sectors. In specific fields sure, photography/video/reconnaissance namely and i'm sure there's a handful of other applications but "UAStork" (just made that up) having drones deliver babies home from hospitals and other ridiculous concepts fall squarely in the "just because you theoreticallycoulddo it doesn't mean youshouldcategory"
meStevo
I think your wife's a bigfoot gus.
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I don't see 7-11 delivering me a slurpee via drone in my lifetime (though, maybe if I had a supported drone and sent it to 7-11 first...), but wouldn't be surprised if Drones were taking off from the roof of Walmarts all over the country a decade or more from now.
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yeah the whole "delivery" angle is what i'm referring to.
software, navigation, material science, and micromin technology has gotten to the point that we can create cheap, ultra lightweight devices that can achieve lift and fly autonomously.
Quick, lets attach a payload adding a fuckton of weight to it!
Utility companies attaching an rf transmitter to their old analog meter's and having drones fly around taking readings rather than paying some dude to drive around in a van stopping at every fucking house checking your meters every month = practical application
Walmart delivering 52" flatscreens via drones, lol wut.
but bandwagon is the commercial drone guy I defer to his wisdom on the matter. I only deal with military drones.
software, navigation, material science, and micromin technology has gotten to the point that we can create cheap, ultra lightweight devices that can achieve lift and fly autonomously.
Quick, lets attach a payload adding a fuckton of weight to it!
Utility companies attaching an rf transmitter to their old analog meter's and having drones fly around taking readings rather than paying some dude to drive around in a van stopping at every fucking house checking your meters every month = practical application
Walmart delivering 52" flatscreens via drones, lol wut.
but bandwagon is the commercial drone guy I defer to his wisdom on the matter. I only deal with military drones.
Bandwagon
Kolohe
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My commercial drone experience is primarily with multispectral imaging, surveying, etc. Basically, data collection.
I have looked into crop spraying drones (like the RMAX or the recently announced DJI), but it just doesn't make sense right now. Payloads are hard. I can map 400 acres on one battery in 55 minutes with perfect weather/no wind. Add a 2nd camera, and that goes down to about 280 acres and 40 minutes. Add 8mph winds, and I'm lucky to get 35 minutes. There are just so many variables before you even get to the point of worrying about safety and crazies on the ground, that I don't see the appeal. I can deliver a beer to my co-workers house 1.5 miles away, which is hilarious, but it sure as shit isn't practical.
What does make sense (to me) is having an enourmous warehouse outside of a city, with corner drop shops (think Starbucks level of locations) where you can order something online and pick it up from your nearest drop shop 45 minutes later. I can't speak on the financial logic of that approach, but it makes a lot more sense to me than trying to develop a drone delivery system for home delivery.
I have looked into crop spraying drones (like the RMAX or the recently announced DJI), but it just doesn't make sense right now. Payloads are hard. I can map 400 acres on one battery in 55 minutes with perfect weather/no wind. Add a 2nd camera, and that goes down to about 280 acres and 40 minutes. Add 8mph winds, and I'm lucky to get 35 minutes. There are just so many variables before you even get to the point of worrying about safety and crazies on the ground, that I don't see the appeal. I can deliver a beer to my co-workers house 1.5 miles away, which is hilarious, but it sure as shit isn't practical.
What does make sense (to me) is having an enourmous warehouse outside of a city, with corner drop shops (think Starbucks level of locations) where you can order something online and pick it up from your nearest drop shop 45 minutes later. I can't speak on the financial logic of that approach, but it makes a lot more sense to me than trying to develop a drone delivery system for home delivery.
Bandwagon
Kolohe
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Meant to address something in Sylas' post, but I got sidetracked.
Cell phone technology has assisted this boom more than a lot of people realize, due to the ever shrinking size and weight of microprocessors and sensors, as well as becoming more affordable. Like Sylas pointed out, the main appeal is affordable sensor platforms.
Payloads/transport is a whole different beast, and the proposed use that Amazon is flashing around would require a (currently) ridiculous level of sense and avoid technology to survive outside of a semi-controlled environment. Just sounds like a nightmare to me.
Cell phone technology has assisted this boom more than a lot of people realize, due to the ever shrinking size and weight of microprocessors and sensors, as well as becoming more affordable. Like Sylas pointed out, the main appeal is affordable sensor platforms.
Payloads/transport is a whole different beast, and the proposed use that Amazon is flashing around would require a (currently) ridiculous level of sense and avoid technology to survive outside of a semi-controlled environment. Just sounds like a nightmare to me.