If you buy something from one of America's retail giants sometime in the future, there's a growing chance a drone will be dropping it at your door. Joining Amazon in the race to get robotic couriers into the sky, Walmart has applied for permission to begin testing drones for home delivery, according to a report from Reuters.
Walmart has already been testing drones indoors for a number of months, but is now looking to branch out and explore the technology's potential beyond its warehouse walls. In addition to checking inventories inside and outside its facilities, the company has applied to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for permission to test drones for home deliveries and curb-side pickups.
Using drones made by Chinese manufacturer DJI, the testing would be to ascertain whether a drone can safely be deployed from a truck to deliver a package to a home, before returning to its take-off point. The company would first gain permission from residents of small neighborhoods along the flight path as part of its plan to test the drone delivery waters.
Walmart's application to the FAA is under review, with the agency to determine whether it fits the criteria for its fast-tracked exemption process. As it stands, drone flight for commercial purposes is illegal in the US, though the FAA is redrafting rules that cater to the burgeoning industry, with new guidelines expected next year.
Source: Reuters
The tech is improving quickly and there is a lot of potential for all the mobile R&D to carry over to drones for cheaper/better computers, GPS, sensors, gyroscopes, radios etc. Robotics should eventually see the same thing. A tablet or a mobile phone has pretty much all the intelligence a robot needs to navigate an environment autonomously.
It's hard to wrap my head around exactly how useful this would be but picture ordering groceries from your kitchen, having a bunch of Kiva robots bring what you need to a guy throwing it in a box. Then he throws it on a conveyer belt where a quadcopter brings it to your house within ~10 minutes. Line the box with something and throw in a small amount of dry ice and you could even order frozen foods and perishables while stuck in traffic and it would be there when you pull in the driveway from work. It would take less time to have it packed and shipped than to walk around the store and buy it because of the Kiva system. This is also great if you are elderly or a student or something and don't have transportation.
With UPS/Fedex etc. you are mostly on their deliver schedule and you do stuff on the order of days instead of hours and minutes. If your kids are going to a birthday party you could order a gift and check the box for "gift wrap" and it would show up before you get the kids out the door instead of having to go to Walmart etc. on the way to the birthday party.
Instant delivery via drone would also be cheaper than standard shipping.
Those are a couple uses for the tech, I am sure there are others I'm not thinking of.
I know it would put me off ever considering such methods were I ever to consider taking such a danger to humans and animals alike within striking distance of the public and their pets (re. Erg's comment, above).
I suppose that if it is ever adopted, it will give pranksters a lot of pleasure as they devise ways to down them with jamming signals and even hi-jack them, if possible.
Millions flock to Wal-Mart schlep their own stuff home in bulging carts, and that cost's nothing but the parking lot, lighting, and maintenance.
Does this make sense?
You too, Amazon.