Amazon Delivery Drone Concept Brings Attention to UAV Market

A growing sector of the aerospace industry, the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) market, got some mainstream attention last month when Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos revealed his Amazon Prime Air concept during an interview on CBS's 60 Minutes. While the UAV is often associated with military applications, there have been instances recently of these machines being used by law enforcement and businesses as well. If the Amazon Prime Air concept is successfully developed and implemented, it will be a major step forward for the UAV market as a whole. [1][2]

Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos presents his Amazon Prime Air idea during his interview on 60 Minutes [7]

Bezos's idea would implement the use of UAVs known as octocopters. As one would guess, the drone is powered by 8 propellers and is about the size of a remote-controlled airplane. They would be able to carry up to 5 pounds in weight, which Bezos claims will cover about 86 percent of the items Amazon delivers. The items will first be packaged in yellow buckets at one of Amazon's 96 warehouses, also referred to as fulfillment centers. The drone will then identify the customer's location via GPS and fly the bucket right to his or her door. Amazon's goal is to accomplish these deliveries in 30 minutes or less within a 10-mile radius of its fulfillment centers. [3][4][5]

A video illustrating the delivery process is shown below:

Technologically speaking, Amazon Prime Air is nearly ready to begin deliveries. Amazon claims that Prime Air will be ready as early as next year. However, service is not expected to begin for another four or five years at the earliest. This is due to two major concerns regarding this potential service. The first and foremost concern is safety. As Bezos said during the 60 Minutes interview, "The hard part here is putting in all the redundancy....All the reliability to say this can’t land on somebody’s head." The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is currently crafting rules and regulations for commercial UAVs, but such discussions will likely take place next year and beyond. As of now, the FAA has plans to test commercial UAVs by the end of the year and propose a rule for them in 2015. Even then, it will probably be many more years until enough tests are conducted to convince the FAA that the drones are completely safe for domestic flight. Privacy is another major concern, as many states are concerned about domestic surveillance using drones similar to the ones that will be used for Prime Air. State governments will have to be convinced that the privacy of citizens will not be compromised by the use of the drones before allowing Prime Air to fly in their skies. [3][6]

Ground-level shot of the Amazon Prime Air octocopter [8]

While Amazon Prime Air may not be operational until even the next decade, the idea proposed by Bezos, who incidentally also runs the private aerospace company Blue Origin, shows how the UAV market is growing. Once simply a military venture, the UAV could soon become our mail truck of the future. Whether or not it becomes a reality remains to be seen, but it shows the potential of the UAV and why it has become so prevalent in the aerospace industry. 

Sources:

[1] "Unmanned Aerial Vehicle." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation,<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unmanned_aerial_vehicle>.

[2] Griffith, Cara. "It's A Bird, It's A Plane...It's Amazon Prime Air?" Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 09 Dec. 2013.<http://www.forbes.com/sites/taxanalysts/2013/12/09/its-a-bird-its-a-plane-its-amazon-prime-air/>.

[3] Guarini, Drew. "Amazon Reveals It Wants To Deploy Delivery Drones. No Joke." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 01 Dec. 2013. <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/01/amazon-prime-air-delivery-drones_n_4369685.html>.

[4] "Amazon Prime Air." Amazon Prime Air. N.p., n.d. <http://www.amazon.com/b?node=8037720011>.

[5] Musil, Steven. "Amazon Testing 'octocopter' Package-delivery Drones." CNET News. CBS Interactive, 01 Dec. 2013. <http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57614166-93/amazon-testing-octocopter-package-delivery-drones/>.

[6] Rigby, Bill. "Don't Expect An Amazon Drone To Get Off The Ground Anytime Soon." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 03 Dec. 2013. <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/03/amazon-drone_n_4374453.html>.

[7] http://asset3.cbsistatic.com/cnwk.1d/i/tim2/2013/12/01/60_1130_Rose_610x343.jpg

[8] https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/G/01/acs/rowland/assets/image-gallery-01._V367570019_.jpg%22