Drones

Australian startups plan on using UAVs to deliver textbooks

Australian startups plan on using UAVs to deliver textbooks
A Flirtey UAV near the Sydney Opera House
A Flirtey UAV near the Sydney Opera House
View 3 Images
A Flirtey UAV near the Sydney Opera House
1/3
A Flirtey UAV near the Sydney Opera House
When the hexacopter arrived at a client's location, it would hover in place and lower the text down to them on retractable cords
2/3
When the hexacopter arrived at a client's location, it would hover in place and lower the text down to them on retractable cords
The UAVs would fly using autonomous control technology, which would include a collision avoidance system to keep them from hitting things like trees or buildings
3/3
The UAVs would fly using autonomous control technology, which would include a collision avoidance system to keep them from hitting things like trees or buildings
View gallery - 3 images

University textbooks can be quite expensive to purchase, so Australian startup Zookal now offers an increasingly popular option – textbook rentals. The problem is, some of the money that students save by renting just goes into shipping charges for the rented books. That's why Zookal has joined with another Ozzie startup, Flirtey, to offer free textbook delivery by drone.

Students would start by ordering a text using Zookal's smartphone app. That book would be loaded into a carrying case mounted on the underside of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), at a regional Zookal dispatch center. The aircraft – a hexacopter – would then fly to the client by homing in on their phone's GPS coordinates.

It would fly using autonomous control technology, which would include a collision avoidance system to keep it from hitting things like trees or buildings. Additionally, it would feature a fail-safe system that would cause it to slowly descend to the ground if its battery pack died.

The client, meanwhile, would be able to track the UAV's progress via its own GPS chip. When the hexacopter arrived at their location, it would hover in place and lower the text down to them on retractable cords.

The UAVs would fly using autonomous control technology, which would include a collision avoidance system to keep them from hitting things like trees or buildings
The UAVs would fly using autonomous control technology, which would include a collision avoidance system to keep them from hitting things like trees or buildings

If the Flirtey textbook delivery service does indeed get off the ground (no pun intended), the company hopes to expand the service to other countries for delivery of a variety of goods. Australia is a good place to start, as it has already legalized commercial UAV flights. Flirtey co-founder Matthew Sweeny says that delivery costs should be very low, and would be covered by the marketing budget of partner companies utilizing the service.

The technology is being developed with the assistance of the University of Sydney's Warren Center for Advanced Engineering. A demonstration project is planned to take place on the university campus.

The Matternet project plans to take delivery-by-drone several steps further, using quadcopters and a network of charging stations to deliver goods to remote African communities. At the other end of the spectrum, the organizers of this year's Oppikoppi music festival used UAVs to get beer to thirsty concert-goers.

More information on Flirtey is available in the video below.

Source: Flirtey via TechCrunch

Flirtey Zookal flight

View gallery - 3 images
13 comments
13 comments
S Michael
Dumb, not in this century...
Bob Shock
A $1000 drone would have to make about 200 flawless autonomous flights before it paid for itself. If you put a human in the loop to control it, forget about ever saving any money compared to the cost of shipping the book.
YouAre
This is another reminder that paperless office\education is far off.
Mick Martin
Pizza Delivery.
Adrien
they say 9/10 startups fail in the first year.
here's 2 more.
JPAR
5 years time - everyone will have 'drop-boxes' on the side of their house/apartment for these drones to deliver fast food. But it'll need some new planning departments to set local air rules to avoid mayhem.
Chris Hogan
"When the hexacopter arrived at their location, it would hover in place and lower the text down to them on retractable cords."
Were these people never students? How many drones do they think they're going to get back?!
Hugh Halford-Thompson
People would struggle to steal the drones without being caught on camera. The drone can call home when anything destabilizes the flight and stream the theft back to the office. Whether this stops students... is another matter.
Marlon Thomas
I thought with the onslaught of iPads and similar other devices we would be moving *away* from paper text books. On a more general note, I wonder how well the concept of UAV-based delivery services would scale upwards? Could you imagine a neighbourhood with dozens of these things flying around delivering packages from Amazon and eBay? FedEx and UPS rest easy (for now).
Martin Hone
If it is cheaper than post, why doesn't the Post Office use them ?
Load More