A textbook-rental startup in Australia has found a new way to shave costs from its business model: delivery by drone. Zookal, which sells and rents textbooks to Australian university students, has launched a pilot program (pilotless program?) at the University of Sydney to deliver textbooks by autonomous hexacopter.
The drone, from a University of Sydney supported startup called Flirtey, will fly to a customer at a designated GPS location based on data sent from an app on the customer's cell phone. Hamish McKenzie of PandoDaily reports that Zookal is partnering with another startup, social media company Vimbra, to build a joint drone delivery service. The companies say that the service will dramatically reduce the cost of local shipping of textbooks and cut delivery time. The drone is not equipped with a camera, but it does have collision avoidance systems to prevent collisions with birds, trees, buildings, and overhead wires.
The delivery system, the companies claim, will fly to the GPS waypoint assigned for the delivery, hover above it, and then lower the book package to the waiting customer. The two companies claim that Zookal's delivery trial is the first commercial use of drones in the world (though other companies have used drones in trials and as part of promotional stunts, such as a pizza delivery drone used in a viral campaign by a UK Domino's franchise holder).
Australia currently allows commercial drone operations, but expansion of the service beyond the Sydney trial—and to other countries—will have to leap multiple regulatory hurdles. In the US, commercial drone operations are still not legal while the Federal Aviation Administration considers rules for integrating drones into the national airspace.
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While I could certainly see this sort of thing having applications in very specific instances and situations, I'm skeptical that it would scale well or be practical on any sustainable commercial scale.
Last edited by Raptor on Tue Oct 15, 2013 9:47 am
All drones have to be human piloted under our current regulations. So the autonomous thing is illegal for a start. Secondly flying aircraft of that size at low altitudes over populated areas is also illegal. And flying them at high altitudes without a transponder is illegal, and they're too small to carry a transponder.
I bet someone from CASA (our FAA equivalent) sees this article and gives them a nice little visit.
The textbook costs more than the drone.
E-readers- I know a lot of people like them but I am very hesitant when they are discussed in the context of textbooks. I think that the publishers would love to switch to a "rent a e-copy for the term" model. Cuts publishing costs by a large amount, means that you can't resell it, and that you have to upgrade to the latest ed. It also means that non-university users of the books (I use several as references in my current work) would have to purchase a subscription rather than just a new book every 3-5 years.
Drone delivery- Seems like they are attempting to bring a Sci-Fi concept to life which is cool, but not practical in this case.
What happens if someone "poaches" the book before the drone gets it to the correct person?
How does the drone know that it has the right person to release it to?
What happens if it flies through the sprinklers and gets the book soaked? (same for rain but I presumed they would not send if raining)
What is to keep the drone from being stolen?
I do think its cool, but not practical. I would not have my $10 Chinese takeout delivered this way, why would I trust it to bring me a very expensive textbook? (mine have usually run between $150 & $300 each)
edit: typo
E-readers- I know a lot of people like them but I am very hesitant when they are discussed in the context of textbooks. I think that the publishers would love to switch to a "rent a e-copy for the term" model. Cuts publishing costs by a large amount, means that you can't resell it, and that you have to upgrade to the latest ed. It also means that non-university users of the books (I use several as references in my current work) would have to purchase a subscription rather than just a new book every 3-5 years.
Drone delivery- Seems like they are attempting to bring a Sci-Fi concept to life which is cool, but not practical in this case.
What happens if someone "poaches" the book before the drone gets it to the correct person?
How does the drone know that it has the right person to release it to?
What happens if it flies through the sprinklers and gets the book soaked? (same for rain but I presumed they would not send if raining)
What is to keep the drone from being stolen?
I do think its cool, but not practical. I would not have my $10 Chinese takeout delivered this way, why would I trust it to bring me a very expensive textbook? (mine have usually run between $150 & $300 each)
edit: typo
While I agree that this aspect isn't practical it does look like they have covered the sprinkler/rain issue in that from the picture it looks like the book is enclosed.
That said I hope this takes off and gets awareness since drones could be used to deliver all sorts of things and if this is the first stepping stone then I'm all for it.
Neat idea, but I think the hurdles on this one may be a little too tall to get over. Regulatory. Insurance. Price. etc. etc.
E-readers- I know a lot of people like them but I am very hesitant when they are discussed in the context of textbooks. I think that the publishers would love to switch to a "rent a e-copy for the term" model. Cuts publishing costs by a large amount, means that you can't resell it, and that you have to upgrade to the latest ed. It also means that non-university users of the books (I use several as references in my current work) would have to purchase a subscription rather than just a new book every 3-5 years.
edit: typo
Well it does say a textbook rental place, so that's already addressed. And yes E-readers would have the advantages of fast delivery and none of the drone downsides.
If not for the battery life problem this would be a great idea, especially if they can automate it so the drones can pick up the packages automatically.
An intermediate step might be automation to load the product on the drone and fly it to the proximity of the target, then hand control to a pilot at that point to determine the appropriate drop-off point, interact with the customer (could even call them to let them know the drone is arriving), etc. Then back to automation when flying to the next drop-off point or back to station. That cuts 90% of the pilot time but requires less intelligence in the drone.
Beer and pizza for the pool party out back? Cool.
.
$20 for crosstown courier delivery of a rental textbook. Not cool.
http://www.techworld.com.au/article/528 ... ing_march/
The recipient can track the drone on their smartphone and step outside when it arrives. The drone waits for a short period of time. If the user misses it, the order can be placed again, said Sweeny.
When the drone arrives, the recipient must press “Lower package” on the smartphone app. The delivery mechanism lowers the parcel based on the location of the smartphone. These processes ensure the parcel is delivered to the right person, said Sweeny.
The drone continues to hover when making the delivery, lowering the parcel to the customer without having to leave its hovering height. If the recipient applies force to the drone’s lowering cord, the parcel is designed to break free without damage to the drone.
The drones are electric-powered using rechargeable lithium polymer batteries. The current model can fly 3 km, allowing deliveries in most CBDs, and carry up to 2 kg. Flirtey expects to increase both limits in future versions of the technology.
For greater safety, the Flirtey drone is built so that it can still land after losing a batter or rotor.
See above for more detail. The robot never goes near head height.
It lowers the book on a rope after the user presses a button on their smartphone.
Mail
Food stuff
Prescriptions (great for us old people)
Car parts
Tools
Courier services may eventually become drone services
The geek in me screams in delighted agreement. It's not *quite* is awesome as the idea of pneumatic tubes for delivery, but it's still quite awesome as a concept.
The [shortened name for overly-paranoid person who is worried about government of any kind with drones over civilian populace] in me screams in delighted terror. Well... terror, anyway.
Regarding using e-texts for school: it has been my personal experience that this is an idea that needs to be seriously dealt with. I flip around in academic books far too much to make anything like this feasible. I flip around in my leisure reading enough that it's a chore, but a glow-in-the-dark e-reader makes for worthwhile reading before bed.
There are often times things I remember to find in a textbook by using how deep into the text or what pictures were on the page as I flip through 200 pages in a few seconds.
Unless we ever get something like Wolfram & Hart's reference books, etexts will fall behind physical text books.
So... Oz companies: good on you.
Mail
Food stuff
Prescriptions (great for us old people)
Car parts
Tools
Courier services may eventually become drone services
I'd like to see a drone drop off a crated engine in front of my garage.
"Hey Earl, I bagged me a geometry textbook and some cheesy bread!"
Expense .... expensive hobby copters are in the $400 range today as premium products. For the sake of argument, let's say that each drone costs $1k after being "productized" with camera, GPS, better lift capacity, etc. That's nothing. A car for delivery service costs 10X the price and the human driver is more expensive still. Cost is NOT a problem here.
Batteries ... as long as a drone can make a full round-trip, that's all you need. The drone can rest back on station for 30min in between each trip like your Roomba does. Scale horizontally with N copters to achieve the needed delivery throughput capacity. The cost of that rest stop just gets figured in.
Lift capacity ... make it bigger, end of story. Cost should scale linearly or sub-linearly with lift capacity and endurance. Plus, there's plenty of research into "teaming" where N copters jointly provide lift force to a heavier package.
Today, this is still in the novelty category. Once the kinks are worked out, there's a MASSIVE potential market here. Imagine a $5k kit that has 4 drones, base stations, and all the software. Let's say your bicycle delivery agent makes $50 per day (laughably low) ... that's a 3-month ROI.
Last edited by jxmzsr on Tue Oct 15, 2013 1:13 pm
That wouldn't even be the most dangerous thing that could happen to you in Australia. Nowhere near it.
That wouldn't even be the most dangerous thing that could happen to you in Australia. Nowhere near it.
Well thats because everything there is either poisonous, oversized and bad tempered or both.
I see just the opposite. Anything that you can do to tailor a service to a customer's schedule seems like it would do very well. As for me, I am gone most of the day so having a package delivered when I want, say 10pm, would be very appealing.
Additionally, the current model of fill the big diesel truck, drive all day, do again tomorrow, seems grossly inefficient. I am sure that we have just about wrangled out most of the efficiency that we can from that model whereas drone delivery is radically different. The possibility for innovation causes me to believe that this is an avenue worthy of serious consideration rather than viewing it happening "just because we can".
I envision several small drone ports throughout a city. Drone drops a package to zone 4, lands at zone 4 port, then waits until tasked for return to the main distribution hub or pick up a package from a customer in the area.
If drones do begin to make deliveries in the US I will certainly be an advocate for drone users rights. Maintain the anonymity of the drone users, no searches without a warrant as it is the property of a citizen and therefor an extension of that person (no third party doctrine loophole). Intercepting a delivery drone would come with harsh penalties. I love the idea of a completely anonymous and reasonably secure (if autonomous as opposed to radio controlled) delivery method.
Edit to add: Any delivery system that unusable in bad weather is a non-starter from a business perspective.
I live in a suburb adjacent to Syd U, and I'm tempted to try all those things...
That wouldn't even be the most dangerous thing that could happen to you in Australia. Nowhere near it.
Well thats because everything there is either poisonous, oversized and bad tempered or both.
Drone-delivered drop-bears. That is all.
See above for more detail. The robot never goes near head height.
It lowers the book on a rope after the user presses a button on their smartphone.
This is ridiculous.. like something out of a 1980's cartoon show.
Wouldn't same hour delivery be just tops, though. I, for one, would welcome the drones if I could get all my hardcovers 45 minutes after I place the order.
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