Amazon Prime Air

[kevonm]

http://www.amazon.com/l/ref=mh_rd_l?...device=desktop

Sorry if Q. Amazon delivered by drone helicopter type things coming soon.

[DaKCMan AP]

Originally Posted by cosmo20002

I should have been clearer. Not that they can't be precise, but I thought I read that they were planned to be largely automated--without a "pilot" and delivering to GPS coordinates. In order to get it exactly on someone's porch seems like you would need a pilot manually guiding it the last 100 feet or whatever.

Are you unaware of how accurate GPS navigation can be? Especially if they add an INS component to it.

[DaKCMan AP]

CP to the Wright bros.: "Your and idiot! There's no way you'll be able to fly. What's the point anyway? People will just shoot you down and steal your plane!"

[cosmo20002]

Originally Posted by DaFace

You realize Google has cars that can drive themselves all over the place safely, right? If they can do that, I'm pretty confident Amazon can identify a way to have a drone identify a door and aim for it.

Impossible! Maybe so.

Instead of a mailbox, maybe Amazon will provide the population with an "Amazon box" that sends a signal to the drone to lead it and directs it to drop the load directly into it. (patent pending)

[Eleazar]

Another idea would be that Amazon could provide you with some sort of a target which you print out, and the drone could locate with its camera. You place the target where you want the package dropped.

[Fish]

Originally Posted by cosmo20002

I should have been clearer. Not that they can't be precise, but I thought I read that they were planned to be largely automated--without a "pilot" and delivering to GPS coordinates. In order to get it exactly on someone's porch seems like you would need a pilot manually guiding it the last 100 feet or whatever.

Not necessarily. A few sensors would allow the unit to navigate precisely without needing GPS. Tell the unit to use various sensors to find the dimensions of a door, for instance. Use that in combination with an IR sensor to pick up the heat signature of the house. It can map its surroundings without GPS. In college, I did a robotics programming project where we taught a robot to navigate an area and act as a waiter, offering people drinks. It would navigate its environment using a host of sensors, identify people, and approach them. It would even use people's spoken responses to keep track of drinks on the tray and return to the bar once it was out of drinks, etc. Very similar things can and are being done with autonomous quadcopters....

[DaKCMan AP]

CP to Al Gore: "Why would you ever invent the internets? What use will that ever have? People communicating over a computer, watching movies, tv, pr0n? Impossible! Next you're going to tell us the Earth is getting warmer."

[cosmo20002]

Originally Posted by DaKCMan AP

Are you unaware of how accurate GPS navigation can be? Especially if they add an INS component to it.

OK, I believe you. Apparently I am unaware of how accurate GPS navigation can be.

[Eleazar]

Originally Posted by DaKCMan AP

CP to the Wright bros.: "Your and idiot! There's no way you'll be able to fly. What's the point anyway? People will just shoot you down and steal your plane!"

Ah cain't wait to practice mah trap shootin' on these robot flyer doohickeys! (spit)

[DaKCMan AP]

Originally Posted by cosmo20002

OK, I believe you. Apparently I am unaware of how accurate GPS navigation can be.

There are many things already in existence that require GPS or INS navigation (or both) that have extremely tight target requirements.

[mikeyis4dcats.]

Originally Posted by DaFace

I think you (and many others) vastly underestimate how close the technology is to being able to make this happen.

there are technological limits, but most of them are bureaucratic. As mentioned, FAA rules prohibit this, and I don't see that changing any time soon.

Logistically, as mentioned the main hindrances are dealing with multi-family locations, and being able to deliver the package to a reasonable location. No one will want packages dropped in the middle of the sidewalk or yard (where there are yards). Since this is limited to within 10 miles of the sorting facility, the main target would likely be urban areas to take load off the rest of the system. That increases the difficulties of delivery.

Technologically, it would require an accurate GPS mapping of all physical addresses within the delivery area. That won't happen quickly. Someone mentioned facial recognition technology for identifying the front door. FR works because faces all have a set of distiguishing characteristics to scan for. Doors don't. Furthermore, delivery to a door in many instances requires very deft flight under an eave or porch, past many obtsacles. Unmanned drones are good, but they are typically used in wide open areas with little to navigate around.

No way this happens by 2015, maybe, MAYBE 2020.

[cosmo20002]

I think the bigger issues will be property and privacy rights. People won't want these flying cameras over their property in order to deliver a package in the neighborhood. They better stay pretty high until they get to the destination. If they are too high, there will be FAA issues.

New housing developments should just be built with Amazon tubes connected to a warehouse--delivery right into your home. (patent pending)

[DaFace]

Originally Posted by mikeyis4dcats.

there are technological limits, but most of them are bureaucratic. As mentioned, FAA rules prohibit this, and I don't see that changing any time soon.

Logistically, as mentioned the main hindrances are dealing with multi-family locations, and being able to deliver the package to a reasonable location. No one will want packages dropped in the middle of the sidewalk or yard (where there are yards). Since this is limited to within 10 miles of the sorting facility, the main target would likely be urban areas to take load off the rest of the system. That increases the difficulties of delivery.

Technologically, it would require an accurate GPS mapping of all physical addresses within the delivery area. That won't happen quickly. Someone mentioned facial recognition technology for identifying the front door. FR works because faces all have a set of distiguishing characteristics to scan for. Doors don't. Furthermore, delivery to a door in many instances requires very deft flight under an eave or porch, past many obtsacles. Unmanned drones are good, but they are typically used in wide open areas with little to navigate around.

No way this happens by 2015, maybe, MAYBE 2020.

If you believe it's harder to identify a door than a face, I give up.

[Fish]

Originally Posted by mikeyis4dcats.

there are technological limits, but most of them are bureaucratic. As mentioned, FAA rules prohibit this, and I don't see that changing any time soon.

Logistically, as mentioned the main hindrances are dealing with multi-family locations, and being able to deliver the package to a reasonable location. No one will want packages dropped in the middle of the sidewalk or yard (where there are yards). Since this is limited to within 10 miles of the sorting facility, the main target would likely be urban areas to take load off the rest of the system. That increases the difficulties of delivery.

Technologically, it would require an accurate GPS mapping of all physical addresses within the delivery area. That won't happen quickly. Someone mentioned facial recognition technology for identifying the front door. FR works because faces all have a set of distiguishing characteristics to scan for. Doors don't. Furthermore, delivery to a door in many instances requires very deft flight under an eave or porch, past many obtsacles. Unmanned drones are good, but they are typically used in wide open areas with little to navigate around.

No way this happens by 2015, maybe, MAYBE 2020.

Crazy talk.

[mikeyis4dcats.]

Originally Posted by DaFace

If you believe it's harder to identify a door than a face, I give up.

FR works because for the most part every face has identifiable landmarks (eyes, nose, jaw line, etc.) that can be scanned for. Doors have similar features, but with less regularity. Entrances to homes and buildings vary widely in their materials, hardware location and type, etc. It would be much more complicated than you might think to accurately devise software that would accurately identify a door (and beyond that, the correct door on a building) to deliver to. And FR is coming along, but is still very unreliable in "live" situations (unlike photo recognition of FB and Picasa).

[Canofbier]

Originally Posted by cosmo20002

I should have been clearer. Not that they can't be precise, but I thought I read that they were planned to be largely automated--without a "pilot" and delivering to GPS coordinates. In order to get it exactly on someone's porch seems like you would need a pilot manually guiding it the last 100 feet or whatever.

I can almost guarantee that the little copter in the video I embedded is automated. It would take a really, really skilled pilot to execute the maneuvers in the video on a consistent basis.

If a little drone can identify a narrow slot, calculate its size and location and then fly directly through its center, identifying a door/porch and landing on it is entirely plausible.

Edit: Apparently I was late to the party. But yeah, it's totally doable.