(Newswire.net — July 25, 2018) — Most people know by now that one of Amazon’s biggest missions is to deliver products to customers using drones. Officially known as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), delivery drones have long been on Amazon’s goal list.
In 2013, CEO Jeff Bezos showed a prototype for the retail behemoth’s Prime Air delivery drone. Several redesigns later, Amazon appears to be inching closer to a workable platform that could completely transform the way it delivers products to customers.
Cutting-edge tech
Part of the preparation work involves Amazon amassing endless patents exploring various different uses of cutting edge technology. We can’t know which patent will eventually ever be used in the real world, but information extracted from them gives a lot of insight as to the direction Amazon is taking.
There are various issues for Amazon to work through before we can expect to see Prime Air drones buzzing around. And its most recent patent, granted at the beginning of July by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office looks at the possible threat of Amazon’s drones being hijacked.
Communications systems
Should the service ever go ahead then thousands of package-carrying drones could be ferrying goods to customers. It’s logical to think that there could be plenty of opportunities for thieves to stop them in their tracks and relieve the drones of products bought and paid for by Amazon customers.
Amazon’s latest patent addresses this issue, specifically homing in on the possibility of thieves interfering with the company’s comms systems. This would then allow the person to ground the drone and steal the goods.
In the patent, Amazon says, “As the use of UAVs continues to increase, so does the likelihood of hostility towards UAVs. Such hostility may come in the form of attacks brought for any number of purposes (eg. steal the UAVs and their payloads, crash the UAVs, and otherwise cause disruption to the operation of the UAVs).”
Amazon expresses concern that people could hack the communication signals being sent from computer to UAV, by using a controller. This could then make the drone unsafe and result in “considerable financial loss for their operators”.
Heartbeat signal
One possible solution explored in the patent is the idea of transmitting a “heartbeat” signal from the controller to the UAV every few seconds. The heartbeat would then detect any interference from a third party, switching the drone automatically into ‘safety mode’. This would cause it to make consistent attempts to relink with the controller and regain control. It could also possibly land the UAV in a safe location where it can be collected or rebooted.
The patent is called “Hostile takeover avoidance of unmanned vehicles” and was filed two years ago, before being approved recently. While there is still no guarantee that we will ever see Amazon’s delivery drones in action, this patent can still be considered a major development, particularly coming from such an innovative and successful company.
Other patents
Amazon’s ultimate goal is for the drones to deliver people’s shopping within an hour of ordering, and this is a clear step towards fulfilling that. The Amazon systems architect and hardware developer who invented the hijack-proof patent is called Glen C Larsen. He also filed a patent that presents technology to utilise holograms to create more secure signatures. As Mr Larsen’s past patents dealt primarily with keyboard tech, these innovations are significant steps forward.
Challenges for Amazon
As well as working out how to stop what they call “nefarious individuals” in the 19-page document, Amazon has still yet to gain permission from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) that using drones in this way would be safe and possible.
Despite this rather major roadblock, the company appears confident enough to continue to invest large amounts into testing and developing its drone-based delivery service. Other patents filed for the project include technology that the drone will use to alert customers to its arrival.
Notification tech
A patent granted on May 29 this year called “Unmanned aerial vehicle approach notification” addresses this issue. The patent notes that customers “may be alarmed or confused” when approached by a drone and describes ways it could potentially interact with customers to mitigate this.
Procedures in the patent include sending texts to the customer regarding the drone’s position with a real-time map location. It also describes speakers and lights on the drone that could be activated as it approaches the customer’s address. For example, the drone could announce it’s there “by emitting a warning sound, a pleasant tune, or other audio”.
Other ideas in the patent include incorporating a projector that could show a drop zone or message onto the ground or a nearby wall. It could tell the customer to move out of the way to facilitate a safe delivery or beam lights onto obstacles to delivery, such as family pets or a piece of furniture.
Further patents
These are just the tip of the delivery drone iceberg in terms of patents filed by Amazon. Others include using street lights, church steeples and mobile phone towers as recharging stations for the drones so that they can complete long distance deliveries. Others describe drone towers shaped like beehives located near to busy urban areas, and most futuristically of all, massive floating warehouses to base drones before and after delivery runs.
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