Design Enhancements of Amazon’s new aerial delivery method
The robotic system has developed over the years, where it has enhanced the reduction of the labour and production cost incurred by companies. There has been a development in the robotic system leading to improvements in drones to be used in the delivery of goods by companies. One of the companies which have used the advanced technology in implementing the robotic drones is the Amazon Company which deals with e-commerce. The use of the crewless aerial vehicles (UAV) by Amazon in delivering products has put the drones in the limelight.
Amazon Company has recently introduced a more powerful advanced aerial delivery system, the Amazon Prime Air. The new delivery drone is a unique, sophisticated machine of its kinds. The drone is fully electric and operates using inbuilt automatic programs. The delivery machine can deliver an order of up to 5lbs, from Amazon in almost thirty minutes. The gadget is different from other drones in terms of appearance and flight features. The new drone has a hexagonal shape and a few of its parts move when it’s in motion. The machine can transit form a helicopter-like appearance to an aeroplane figure when taking off. During the take-off period, the drone uses shroud to shield its blades. The cover also acts as wings of the drone at this point. The drone has multiple sensors and a set of computing unit that operate a variety of machine learning modules to ensure the safety of the drone when in motion (Parisa, 2020). The sensors are ultrasonic, thermal and were also designed in-house by Amazon technology experts. The delivery drone has autonomous flight schemes that can correctly locate and direct it to the landing spot.
Amazon’s new delivery drone is faster, safer, more convenient, efficient and stable than other drones that were in operation before its invention. The delivery machine is very reliable and can take sovereignty safety measures suitable whenever it encounters a problem. Therefore, it does not require a network connection to deal with new circumstances (Natarajan, 2020). The latest drone has inbuilt artificial intelligence which can coordination the autonomous operation of the delivery machine. In case the drone encounters a change in the surroundings, it will take automatic action to either call off the delivery or hold up the delivery. Unlike other drones and robotic gadgets, Amazon’s new delivery drone uses proprietary supercomputer visualization and machine learning programs to identify animals, people and objects. The delivery machine has a cooling factor that is of a unique hybrid design.
The Amazon Prime Air can fly up to 15 miles and deliver packages that weight approximately five pounds. The design and features of this delivery drone is an enhancement from the previous drones. The drone has a refined version far more advance than the conventional models of ordinary drones. The level of technology applied in designing the delivery drone makes it independently safe. The unique feature of the drone is that the safety measures are inherent on the aircraft machine (Jung, 2017). The drone does not require any external assistance to take safety action. Amazon did all the designing of the software applications and hardware of this special drone. The drone has unique capabilities to control itself and react to the changes in the environment.
There are different benefits associated with the design enhancement of Amazon’s drone in the delivery of goods to its customers. The new aerial delivery system of Amazon will speed up the delivery of commodities to the customers. The flying vehicles are designed to provide goods to clients in locations far from the company stores. There is a programming of the drones with the location address for the person who ordered the product and can transport the products quickly and causing any damage.
Another benefit of the use of the aerial delivery system by drones is time management for both customers and the employees. The design enhancement of the Amazon aerial vehicles shows that drones could deliver products to clients within 30 minutes, which means that the process of delivery will be fast. The employees will clear the delivery fast compared to when they use the manual system of transporting the products to customers which may even take hours as the transporters deliver the products to customers. The use of aerial drones ensures that there is a safe delivery system for goods (Xu, 2017). When drivers transport the products to customers, they assume the delivery risks in their way because of the road conditions. The drivers can even involve in accidents or encounter road challenges like constructions and run out of fuels which lead to delays in the delivery of the products. Despite the risk of drones falling from the sky, there are different advantages of using the aerial delivery system compared to the traditional method of delivering the products.
The number of people developing an interest in e-commerce products is increasing in the world. The people came from different continents, and it is easy for them to place an order with Amazon Company because of the public website displayed by the company online. Enhancement of the UAV has enabled the company to meet customers demand because of the speed utilized by the drone (Young, 2017). The delivery drone from Amazon has a range of 20 km, and this means the delivery by the use of a drone cannot be made beyond the 20 km range. Therefore, this makes it a challenge for long distant customers and customers from abroad. In conclusion, the design enhancement of Amazon’s aerial delivery method fulfils the changing customer needs in the market.
References
Jung, S., & Kim, H. (2017). Analysis of amazon prime air uav delivery service. Journal of Knowledge Information Technology and Systems, 12(2), 253-266.
Natarajan, C., High, D. R., & O’Brien, V. J. J. (2020). U.S. Patent No. 10,592,843. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
Parisa, C., & Mohammed, S. (2020). Controlling a Drone using Virtual Assistant Amazon Alexa.
Xu, J. (2017). Design perspectives on delivery drones. RAND.
Young, L. A. (2017). A Multi-Modality Mobility Concept for a Small Package Delivery UAV.