Drone deliveries.

[ZenOps]

http://www.cbc.ca/player/Shows/ID/2654753465/

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/sep/25/german-dhl-launches-first-commercial-drone-delivery-service

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Re-spamming the idea because of CBC documentary (in case you missed it on RegularTV)

Does it really make sense for a 2 pound pizza delivery to come by 4,000 pound heated car, that has to stop and start at every red light, fill up on a tenth of a barrel of oil at a gas station, increase traffic congestion, and require the full time employment of a driver?

Wouldn't it be better to use an autonomous ten pound quadcopter that sips the equivalent of a marble of coal converted into electrical power, that can be faster in delivery, does not contribute to traffic congestion, and lets the delivery guy be employed as a rockstar or hockey player instead?

[Darell_n]

Target practice is going to be fun. Everyone loves free pizza.

[ZenOps]

I dunno.

People don't shoot at regular planes and helicopters, and those have infrared and high res cameras that are 100x better than a cheapy drone. If its in constant record and capture mode offsite, they can probably capture where the muzzle flash came from, and the person who did it, before it crashed.

There is a big deterrent that there is a person inside a big helicopter, but take it away - and will people really hate drones so much.

I can't wait for drone delivered pizza and beer. Arugably, half the cost of a pizza is delivery charge. If they half the cost to the consumer, drone pizzas may become a huge hit.

PS: AT two million pounds rocketfuel to launch to the space station, food deliveries to the space station is in the range of $1000 per pound, of which of course - the US taxpayer pays for (Each US family is $732,000 in debt, and rising quickly)

[Darell_n]

I never said anything about firearms. I was thinking more along the lines of drone vs drone, capture nets, EMP, signal hacking / blocking, fun stuff like that.

[Darell_n]

Imagine the delivery company's surprise when their last video feed is a close up of a taser at 1000ft up.

[speedog]

Originally posted by Darell_n
Imagine the delivery company's surprise when their last video feed is a close up of a taser at 1000ft up.
Imagine the taser owner's surprise when the police come a knocking on their door.

[ExtraSlow]

will UPS drones get some kind of air-to-air system to shoot down the amazon drones?

Drone wars?

[Tik-Tok]

Originally posted by ZenOps

Does it really make sense for a 2 pound pizza delivery to come by 4,000 pound heated car, that has to stop and start at every red light, fill up on a tenth of a barrel of oil at a gas station, increase traffic congestion, and require the full time employment of a driver?


Makes more sense than a drone flying over my fucking house.

Also, since when can delivery drivers afford a 4000 lb. car, they're always in a 2800lb hatchback :rofl:

[Unknown303]

Plus what it you get the wrong pizza?

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[Darell_n]

Originally posted by speedog

Imagine the taser owner's surprise when the police come a knocking on their door.

I wouldn't own anything. Just create a sentient drone ass kicking machine and set it free to live it's own life.

[Unknown303]

Uhhh..

http://i.imgur.com/IVdMtTa.jpg

[Sugarphreak]

...

[jacky4566]

Wont happy. The risk to public safety is too great. Once one faults out and crashes on Deerfoot. No more drones.

Only way it would work is with dedicated right of ways.

[ZenOps]

I could see it being relatively safe for crossing highways.

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Its not like its flying at 10 feet high, it is designed to go up 300 feet. Assuming that there is some level of basic intellegence to the drone, it has two choices, attempt to cross the road or not.

If its too low of an altitude, or too low battery power, or for whatever reason it determines that the likelyhood of making it across is low, it just wont' try - and will either return to the pizza delivery depot for transfer to a properly working drone, or by regular car delivery or worst case, leave a free pizza by the side of the highway.

If its at high enough altitude, it will attempt and even if it has a castastropic failure one second into trying to cross, it should still make it to the other side just on momentum. I'm not saying it would be going 100 km/h at 300 feet, but even a much slower speed should hurl it like a rock even if it lost all power.

The outrage will be high when the first car hits a drone, but it will fade - much like it tends to fade when people run into deer, moose, birds, etc. I do trust a computer brain more than I trust a deer when it comes to road safety.

[Sugarphreak]

...

[BigMass]

do you know how cold a pizza or any other hot food would be after flying it to someone's house? Unless your drone is so big it has some sort of effective heat/ insulation system. At least in a car it can stay somewhat warm hehe

[ZenOps]

It would probably stay hot if it was a hot pizza.

They can always modify drones so that the propellers are further apart and do not draft on the payload. Mylar insulation is also extremely light and should keep things hot. One can always just try for yourself, go a little farther out of city into an empty field and fly around a hot pizza for a while ;) Better yet, attempt a delivery to a ranger outlook station (but if anyone asks, don't blame me)

I can imagine there are some billionaire penthouse and yacht owners right now getting food delivered to their helicopter pads - by drone.

[codetrap]

I don't see it making economic sense... a pizza guy can deliver 10 pizza's at once to 10 different locations on a loop, or a run. Or if the pizza shop get's a order for 2 pizza's or 4 pizza's.. How many drone copters would they need? It would require a fundamental shift in the pizza business I would think. Plus the airspace around the drone base would require some serious management, and you might run into issues with running out of power on a single drone making multiple runs..

None of these are technically impossible to overcome, but do they make economic sense vs paying a driver?

[ZenOps]

Economically, it will definitely be less than by car if not already.

Especially in hilly terrain. Driving a 2,800 pound car up does waste a ridiculous amount of carbon, it also wears down the brakes on the way down.

Exceptionally remote areas, like where ice roads river crossings, also prime for this tech. Anywhere that does not have a road, geologists and cable runners could get a hot meal in the field even when miles from a road.

As for congestion: There is none. While in air, Airspace is three dimensional, there really is no such thing as traffic congestion. You can set 100 drones to each fly at a different altitude between 100 and 300 feet, and they will always be at least three feet apart, even if exactly ontop of each other according to GPS, they should never touch unless there is some sort of sensor malfunction.

There might be some issues with landing at the depot, but if they are programmed to do a simple upsidedown U in delivery, straight up to the height they are programmed before moving an inch of latitute or longitude - it should never have the chance to crash into another drone from the same depot. If you intend to fly the drone like a plane, where altitude and GPS are moving at the same time - Yes, the chances of them crashing together increases exponentially.

Upside down U, at 300 feet also means you never have to avoid a tree or powerline, its not even a factor.

[Gman.45]

You aren't a pilot are you Zenops.

The only thing wrong with your plan is that the technology isn't there yet, plus these drones are not all weather capable either. Try using any of these current quad/hex/whatever electric multi rotors in even a bit of rain, much less heavy rain or snowstorms, and watch what happens.

Even heavy wind is a problem for them, not to mention the dozens of other random things that sensors alone can't predict and react autonomously too. Sure, they work in an environment with perfect conditions, but throw in a week of bad weather, and bye bye pizza or any other deliveries - what business could risk or survive that? They would be back to using cars/drivers during the weeks of blizzards or rainstorms we get in Canada, the conditions for grounding a drone capable of lifting even 50lbs are far, far less than they are for grounding a helo or full size aircraft.

A good friend of mine is a drone pilot with the USAF, he handles the hand offs and does the landings/take offs at a forward deployed base outside of the western world. The reason there even IS human pilots in the loop still? Weather. Bad weather is responsible for the majority of the drone crashes, and that's a lot of crashes, and these are full sized drones built to be all weather capable. So what happens when autonomous tiny little disposable drones hit the weeks of bad weather without any human control?

[revelations]

These units would have to be large enough to support dual piston engines for one engine out - plus a ballistic parachute for bird strike or other disaster recovery - especially since they will probably be flying low level most of the time (power lines, birds, etc.)

Then there are the noise issues, air regulations .... and it on and on it goes.

Only a big company like Google or Amazon has the pocket to jump through the hurdles to make this viable. However I could see a pizza place doing this ONCE with a small machine in good weather, JUST for PR.

[spikerS]

the type of drones required to do this kind of thing are not cheap, and each one would be worth a few thousand easily. They would go missing so fast...

[Sugarphreak]

...

[msommers]

I for one welcome our mechanical overlords. May death come swiftly to their enemies.

http://www.cartoonesque.com/futurama/rsrc/persos/morbo.jpg

[Mixalot27]

Seems like it might work pretty well for drug smuggling or activities like that. Maybe program a drone to do a hit on someone. :eek:

[Gman.45]

Mixalot, both are already being done. Groups in Vancouver transitioned from helicopters smuggling drugs and guns from the USA to other methods recently. One of these are drones. There are videos all over the net of small hexarotors lifting and flying 50lb water drums around - using GPS and inertial backup navigation, they've been moving kilograms of drugs north and south, as well as firearms for the last year according to RCMP and other agencies.

A drone was recently found crashed with several pounds of Meth from Mexico in a Texas parking lot.

ALso, regarding the "hit" thing, small swarming drones, single drones, and on and on, have been in the pipeline with the military in weaponized form. SOCOM and JSOC have been rumored to already have used small drones with explosives to infiltrate caves and built up areas, and used advanced target recognition technology to pick off designated targets with them. It's open source some of the new stuff, there is a back pack drone for soldiers to deploy that has a warhead and the ability to engage enemy fighters being tested right now in Afghanistan and other places. The below article about the switchblade is 3 years old now.

http://www.smh.com.au/technology/sci-tech/new-switchblade-a--lethal-weapon-us-backpack-kamikaze-drones-20120612-206w3.html


Explosive tech is at the point where very small charges can be lethal at close range, the micro sized helicopters you can buy (like the Blade models) can pack more than enough to kill a soldier or target, even wearing steel or ceramic armor and helmets.

[frozenrice]

Being the intelligent scavengers that ravens and magpies are, I can imagine when they figure out the drones are carrying food.... :rofl:

[AndyL]

Right up until they hit a prop spinning at 40,000 RPM - my little nano drone draws blood when it hits flesh...

Seriously doubt a bird strike would go well for the bird... :)

[ZenOps]

I'd bet the next Youtube delivery will be to an apartment building that doesn't have an elevator.

Pizza guy is always slower in that case.

[ZenOps]

And something to ponder.

How does a US military drone flight controller know that he is bombing a Taliban cave dweller? I mean it has cameras and all, but if you take the operator one degree of seperation out of the equation (not loading the bomb on the drone)

Then how does he know that he is not delivering drugs or weapons to the Taliban instead? Just cut the videofeed right at the end, and mission accomplished.

[Darell_n]

Originally posted by ZenOps
And something to ponder.

How does a US military drone flight controller know that he is bombing a Taliban cave dweller? I mean it has cameras and all, but if you take the operator one degree of seperation out of the equation (not loading the bomb on the drone)

Then how does he know that he is not delivering drugs or weapons to the Taliban instead? Just cut the videofeed right at the end, and mission accomplished.

How do you know you just typed that out and pressed enter? Maybe some fat naked guy sitting in his basement is playing the 23rd version of Sims and you are his character.

[ZenOps]

I know, because its cross verifyable by hundreds of people around the world all accessing from different places.

For all that military drone operator knows, all that he has been doing, is delivering pizzas to the enemy, with the occasional cut feed to a pre-recorded explosion. Its not entirely unlike the moon landing videofeed, it did come from one place afterall.

[Unknown303]

Originally posted by ZenOps
I know, because its cross verifyable by hundreds of people around the world all accessing from different places.

For all that military drone operator knows, all that he has been doing, is delivering pizzas to the enemy, with the occasional cut feed to a pre-recorded explosion. Its not entirely unlike the moon landing videofeed, it did come from one place afterall.

You should watch some documentaries on drones. The US military's drone operators have to continue to survey the area for 1/2 an hour after they complete a missile strike to assess the scene and the aftermath of the attack.

I also haven't seem anything confirming that they are using quadcopters as attack drones, I've heard talk of it being possible and that some companies had made demonstrations on it but it seems the military prefers the Predator drone attacks since after you do the missile strike you have the ability to watch and observe after the attack. If you send a dummy drone in that just explodes you have no way of verifying.

[ZenOps]

Yet more Youtube:

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Red Green ain't got nothing on this guy. Sure you could use gasoline, but its not the same.

[codetrap]

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[Unknown303]

Originally posted by ZenOps
Yet more Youtube:

L75ESD9PBOw

Red Green ain't got nothing on this guy. Sure you could use gasoline, but its not the same.

That isn't even a UAV UAS Drone or whatever we want to call them anymore. That's just a multirotor helicopter if you put a person on/in it.

[ZenOps]

Originally posted by Unknown303


That isn't even a UAV UAS Drone or whatever we want to call them anymore. That's just a multirotor helicopter if you put a person on/in it.

Only if he was flying it himself. Arugably, you could put your life in the hands of a computer - and try for a triple flip.

[Unknown303]

He was flying it himself. You can see him holding the controller while he was sitting in the chair. And he is putting his life in the hands of a computer since there's a serious amount of computing required to control all the electric motors on that thing.

You do know what's required to get a multirotor in the air right?

[ZenOps]

Originally posted by Unknown303
He was flying it himself. You can see him holding the controller while he was sitting in the chair. And he is putting his life in the hands of a computer since there's a serious amount of computing required to control all the electric motors on that thing.

You do know what's required to get a multirotor in the air right?

Suprisingly little in terms of wattage. How much computing power is required to get three drones with a net to work co-operatively to catch and then throw a ball back to you (Previous TED video)

Assuming calculations require about a 10 Gigaflops/sec, it would take about one watt. Long gone are the days of post WWII helicopters where a transistor could be measured in switching per second and was the size of a penny. Nowadays, you can stick a billion transistors on a penny and calculate movement a hundred times per second.

Is that a controller, or is is just a stick to hold onto. I can imagine its at least an emergency cutoff switch.

This could absolutely devastate the gas powered helicopter industry though. I figure by the time a quadcopter can do a 12x flip from 20 feet up, without human intervention is the time you retire the helicopter pilot entirely.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FLOPS < Amazing that you can now buy for about $500 a modern videocard that technically has 11x more computing power than the worlds fastest computer in 1996 and took its own power station to run. Drone brains can simulate human brains fairly well, and excel when in groups (like the three independant drones coming together to throw a ball)

[JAYMEZ]

This would never work with the drones they have today.. Especially in places like here in Vancouver.. How would someone in an apartment building get the pizza? Would the drone just stay at the front door waiting for the right person to take it lol? A random bum could just grab the pizza and walk away

[jwslam]

Originally posted by JAYMEZ
How would someone in an apartment building get the pizza? Would the drone just stay at the front door waiting for the right person to take it lol? A random bum could just grab the pizza and walk away
Balcony! :D

[ZenOps]

New Amazon drone delivery footage

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Now seems to advertise a 15 mile radius and placeable "landing pad" where you want to the delivery to be dropped.

[revelations]

haha, just signed up for PRIME this week. Didnt realize they were this far already.

[revelations]

Originally posted by JAYMEZ
This would never work with the drones they have today.. Especially in places like here in Vancouver.. How would someone in an apartment building get the pizza? Would the drone just stay at the front door waiting for the right person to take it lol? A random bum could just grab the pizza and walk away

You would set the drop location at a nearby open space and wait - hopefully the zombie crackheads wont come out though.