Amazon Patents Flying Warehouses Staffed by Armies of Delivery Drones
Amazon Patents Flying Warehouses Staffed by Armies of Delivery Drones
January 4, 2017 by PAUL RATNER
If you are wondering about how the city of a near future might look like, imagining giant airships roaming the skies might soon be a pretty safe bet. A patent for Amazon’s flying warehouses revealed some quite futuristic but also very possible technological solutions that the online retail leader is looking to implement.
The patent, found by by Zoe Leavitt of CB Insights, describes “airborne fulfillment centres” (AFC) that will float above cities, at 45,000 ft, carrying goods to be delivered by an army of drones.
Some aspects of why the airships could be useful to Amazon - it would build fewer physical warehouses and the delivery by drones from an AFC would require very little power, as the drones would essentially be gliding down to their destination. Here’s how the patent describes the workings of the flying warehouses:
“As the UAVs descend, they can navigate horizontally toward a user-specified delivery location using little to no power, other than to stabilise the UAV and/or guide the direction of descent. Shuttles (smaller airships) may be used to replenish the AFC with inventory, UAVs, supplies, fuel, etc. Likewise, the shuttles may be utilised to transport workers to and from the AFC.”
More:
http://bigthink.com/paul-ratner/amazon-plans-flying-warehouses-hovering-above-cities-staffed-by-armies-of-delivery-drones
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