The delivery mechanism is the latest step in Google’s Project Wing drone delivery system, which comes out of the firm’s secretive Google[x] research division.
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Google’s Project Wing is the codename for the company’s drone delivery service it hopes to launch in 2017. When the drone is due to arrive the delivery device switches on its IR beacons, which the drone detects and uses to find its way to the delivery device, where it drops off its package. Google said that it deliver the package to a secure public spot: a raised spot away that would be hard for the thieves or pets to reach, a secure enclosure on the property, a locker or location where the owner of the package could go and pick it up, etc.
Meanwhile, Amazon has also been working on drone deliveries; the company released a prototype November 2015, supposedly capable of carrying up to about 2.5kg over about 16km.
Dubbed “Project Wing”, the initiative was announced in August 2014 with a YouTube video showing a field test conducted in Australia.
This system should be able to make secure deliveries, making sure the drone doesn’t get lost and that your package is safely placed wherever you want, for example in the garage.
Explaining the idea in more detail, Google says the receptacle would be notified of a pending delivery, giving it time to position itself outside the recipient’s home.
The patent says the motorized bin would then transport the package to a safe location, or drop it in a mail slot. Moreover, as Reuters reported, Google as well as Amazon need to wait for the decision by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) before kickstarting their delivery services.
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The FAA formed a task force to advise on the way forward on drones, which recommended that anyone with a drown weighing more than half a pound and less than 55 pounds to apply to be registered with it before launching their devices airborne. (NASDAQ:AMZN) and Alphabet have committed resources into research involving configuring drones for commercial deliveries.
