Amazon files super-drone fleet patent

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This article was published 30/12/2016 (3368 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

SEATTLE — Amazon.com scientists have dreamed up a scheme straight out of Voltron, a 1980s animated show for kids where several vehicles joined together to form an evil-fighting super-robot. In this case, it’s a super-drone. And it would operate out of a flying warehouse.

In a patent filing dated Thursday, the e-commerce giant states it wants to build a “collective” unmanned aerial vehicle by having smaller drones stick together in various configurations. That would allow the super-drone to carry “virtually any size, weight, or quantity of items, travel longer distances, etc.,” the application reads.

The drones can also fly together somewhere and then separate to make individual deliveries.

An Amazon patent available through the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office details plans to create an ‘airborne fulfillment center.’ Basically, a flying warehouse held aloft by blimps

The idea would allow Amazon to field just one type of drone instead of several types in which each is designed to carry different types of packages or travel at various distances. It’s just another patent from a company that files plenty of them, but it shows how busily Amazon is thinking about the drone delivery program first announced by CEO Jeff Bezos in 2013.

Drones are important to Amazon because their widespread use would allow the company to bring down its last-mile delivery costs from a few dollars to a few cents for each package.

If you thought getting packages by unmanned drone was cool, an Amazon patent available through the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office details plans to create an “airborne fulfillment center.” Basically, it’s a flying warehouse held aloft by blimps. According to CNBC, Amazon was awarded the patent on the fulfilment centre in April.

It would float 45,000 feet above a city and hold not only thousands of items, but a fleet of drones. Gravity would make the drones more energy-efficient because they wouldn’t have to power up until they’re close to the ground. The drones could make their way back to the mothership in a shuttle, accompanied by packages and workers who are not afraid of heights. It can move to hover over other cities based on demand.

Images accompanying the patent feature a blimp as the chosen airship for the fulfilment centre, although it’s not clear whether the vehicle will be part of Amazon’s final design.

Amazon envisions using this concept beyond delivering customer orders. An example used in the patent details how the flying warehouse could be deployed during an event such as a football game. The warehouse could stock specific items such as sporting apparel or food, then relocate near the event so customers could order items and have them quickly delivered by drone.

The patent also states, in some cases, the fulfilment centre could “navigate to a lower altitude and provide advertising.”

The details of the patent cap what has been a wild month for Amazon, which delivered its first package by drone earlier this month. The test was completed in the United Kingdom and kicks off a pilot testing period for drone delivery. Amazon still awaits approval from the Federal Aviation Administration to start delivering packages in the U.S. by drone.

When it’s not working on delivery technology, Amazon is opening grocery stores without checkout lines. The company is testing out the concept in Seattle. Users tap their smartphones as they enter the store to log in, and users add items through an app.

When the customer walks out, the app charges their Amazon account.

— Seattle Times / USA Today