Drones Fly Into Package Delivery Space

In the never-ending quest to speed package delivery to the last mile, a new entrant is gaining attention: the drone.

One recent model is called the HorseFly™ octocopter, an unmanned aerial vehicle being developed by AMP Holding (Cincinnati, OH) in collaboration with the University of Cincinnati’s Department of Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics.

The rationale behind HorseFly is energy efficiency.

HorseFly is designed to reside on the roof of an electric delivery truck—the Workhorse E-GEN™ truck developed by AMP Electric Vehicles, an AMP Holding subsidiary.

The drone is capable of delivering packages weighing up to 10 pounds to specific street addresses—essentially on autopilot—while the truck itself is driven through the local neighborhood.

Here’s how it works: HorseFly scans the barcode on the package, determines the path to the delivery address via GPS, and lifts off. Once the package is delivered, HorseFly then returns to the truck’s roof, to dock with a battery charging station.

According to the creators, a wireless recharge takes about two minutes.

AMP reports that by using HorseFly, the cost of deliver could be brought down to two cents per mile.

The drone reportedly has a range up to 20 miles, but AMP anticipates that most of its trips would span less than two miles

A number of safety features are built-in, starting with eight rotors instead of the standard four. As for the actual package delivery, Fleet News Daily is told that the Horsefly drops the package within 12 inches of the designated area.

Source: Sebastian Thaler

Category: General Update