Drones for Delivery Services
Rapid development in technology has been the most welcoming part of advancement that has seen many companies which deal with deliveries fade away day in day out. At one point in time, people could only communicate through the use of written letters that were sent via messengers who were trusted to deliver the message without making any alterations in the letter (Westcott, 2017). The problem came in when the people who intended to communicate were separated by a relatively large distance or even by a huge mass of water such as oceans. This would mean that the message would take a lengthy period of time to be delivered and to bring back the response.
The magic of civilization, industrialization and technology has turned this situation into a benefit for many while making others suffer through being pushed out of business as people and other companies embrace technology as a way of doing business. In the contemporary world, people no longer depend on post-offices to deliver their letter in a week’s time; rather there are other direct delivery services that have been innovated to enhance satisfactory delivery of urgent goods or letters. Innovations in the area of flight have led to the development of drones. These aerial vehicles which are unmanned have made a very significant achievement in surveillance and other military functions such as dropping bombs (Redding et al., 2017). Supposedly, it is this latter use that opened a lee way for innovators to think of the use of drones in delivering goods. This paper seeks to explore the function of drones in delivering goods. It will comprehensively consider the limitations and the abilities of drones as compared to other parcel delivery services with regards to distance, cost efficiency, amount of load, control, danger of operation and other important factors.
A photo of a drone delivering pizza
The Technological Perspective
The technical aspect of drones also has the source of energy as a great concern. This is because making drones to use fuel will mean that the machines will need to be operated manually. Conversely, the use of fuel would have immensely increased the weight of the machine. In addition, environmental pollution would also become another issue to deal with since the use of fuel by drones would have increased the amount of carbon emissions content in the atmosphere. In addition to this, drones are programmable machines which also need some form of electric power to run the inbuilt computers in the machines (Park et al., 2016). Even though drones will be responsible for some environmental crisis, they will have some benefits which will be many compared to the disadvantages. Some of the benefits include the fact that they can be used to save lives where people cannot access during emergencies such as in the oceans. The study of the weather and any upcoming storms can be identified by researchers before the storms hit humans living in specific parts of the world.
As such, the unmanned aerial vehicles were left with the option of using batteries as their source of energy. The batteries used by drones can be classified into two groups. The first group is made up of the inbuilt batteries while the second group is made up of detachable batteries. The removable batteries can also be classified into single-use batteries and rechargeable or multiple use batteries. Rechargeable batteries are commonly used for the function of powering drones. This is because they have an added advantage as compared to inbuilt batteries. The batteries also outdo the single-use batteries (Park et al., 2016). Rechargeable batteries are very convenient when it comes to services. A charger can be used to recharge a battery unlike the single use which will require installation of a new one or time wastage when it comes to their use. The performance of the batteries is very good as compared to the single use batteries in terms of the voltage which is approximately 1.5 volts. Although the cost of buying a rechargeable battery is expensive, there is cost saving in the long run since it is a onetime investment for the users.
Detachable batteries which are rechargeable make the delivery drones to be more efficient in delivering parcels. When drones get back to the depot, the used batteries are removed and the recharged batteries are installed immediately. This takes a relatively negligible amount of time as compared to the amount take to recharge batteries that are permanently installed in a drone. The power that can be drawn from these batteries determines the distance and that can be covered and the load that can be carried by a drone (Park et al., 2016). The number of batteries purchased during the initial investment period should also be limited matched with the operation period. Rechargeable batteries undergo a depreciation known as calendar aging and this may consequently affect the operation of the drones or even increase the charging period (Zhang and Sheng, 2015)
Another aspect of designing drones should be directed towards the construction of heterogeneous batteries or drones which will possess the capacity and the capability of carrying heavy and other bulky products from one point to the other. Different customers order different sizes or loads of goods. As a result, it is more economical to attach small goods to small drones and large goods to large drones. Conversely, attaching batteries that are unnecessarily huge to drones that are carrying small goods or delivering goods in a short distance range is also a waste of resources or overkill (Redding et al., 2017). For this reason, the use of heterogeneous batteries can help in reducing the weight of the drone when necessary (Park et al., 2016).
The technology applied to deliver goods by drones goes beyond the flight time or the design of the models. Efficiency in time management largely depends on the time it takes for a drone to be set and ready for the next take off for either a delivery service or a rescue mission. The loading time also involves the exchange of batteries. As such, the charging speed can also act as a factor that can facilitate efficiency in operation and cost (Park et al., 2016). This implies that if the charging speed is high, less spare batteries will be purchased than if the charging speed is low. Another consideration that ought to be made is the replacement of the batteries from the battery pool. This decision is highly dependent on the life of the batteries and the frequency of use of the batteries. When batteries with a long-life span are used more frequently, they also retire more easily (Park et al., 2016).
The Operation of Drones
The operation of a drone depends on five components which form the drone operation system. These include the drone, the means of communication, the control station on the ground, the pilot, as well as, the support team. The drone can either be designed as an octocopter or a quadcopter. Whether the design team opts to go for quadcopters or octocopters, there is a need for them to understand that each of these designs has its own advantages and shortcomings. Besides being agile, the quadcopters have a restricted endurance and payload capacity. Lengthy and detailed delivery of goods requires a more sophisticated architecture in the design of the drones as well as in the setting up of the entire drone support system (Redding et al., 2017). The time taken will be of benefit since the drones are set to perform certain activities. The setting will now depend on the workload and this will influence the level of activities done to make sure that the drone does not malfunction before it delivers.
The control station on the ground hosts the pilot who is responsible for flying the drone to its destination and back to the depot safely. There are three types of control which can be applied in controlling the drone (Westcott, 2017). These include supervisory control, high-level mission planning, and full control authority. The choice of the mode of control used to direct the drone should be governed by the safety of the third parties on the ground and other airspace users (Redding et al., 2017).
Another important aspect of the operation of drones is the communication method applied. The communication system plays the noble role of connecting the drone to the control station on the ground. It is also through this communication system that the pilot is able to interact with the environment in which the drone is operating. Quadcopters operate using radios tuned to the frequency of 2.4 GHz (Redding et al., 2017). Operating in this frequency has a limitation of a relatively shorter range in terms of reach. For lengthy deliveries where the drones get out of the line of site, satellite technology can be applied. The use of satellite relay to control the drones may, however, have a disadvantage of creating large amounts of latency (Westcott, 2017).
The satellite has a bigger advantage of allowing the drone to be controlled from any point on the globe, therefore, countering the short-range disadvantage of radio transmissions. These communication systems and others that are available for use can be combined to ensure efficiency and effectiveness in communication between the drone and the pilot. Combining these systems of communication helps to supplement the weakness found in one system of communication with the strengths of the other system of communication (Redding et al., 2017).
Below is a framework for a drone delivery service from the seller to the buyer where it is controlled by a specific network and personnel to ensure that the drone stays on the course.
Fig.1 drone delivery service architecture. Retrieved from: A Security Framework for a Drone Delivery Service (Seo et al., 2016).
The support team forms an essential portion of the drone system. This team is responsible for a number of tasks including repairing the drones, replacing the batteries, loading the right package to the right drone and informing the pilot on the readiness of the drone (Redding et al., 2017). It is, therefore, necessary to ensure that there exists an efficient communication between the support team and the pilot. The support team needs to keep a good record of the repairs made as well as the battery replacements made. This information helps in avoiding system failure due to overused batteries of poorly maintained drones. The maintenance should be done with the help of experts from the manufacturing company.
Even though it may be true to say that technology is replacing human intelligence, it may also be true to hold that the failure of technology may have worse outcomes than any natural disaster ever witnessed in the universe. The substantial reduction in the mishap rate of drones is what will lead to the development of full potential in using drones to deliver goods (Redding et al., 2017). A good example is when the communication systems of a company hosting over one thousand drone that are on transit fail. If, by any chance the company happens to lack a back-up system or a way of making the drones to switch to safe mode, the outcome of a thousand unmanned aircraft systems on free fall from the sky would be adverse.
The technological aspect of drones is vast than the simple advantages of saving time and labour. A company operating these drones need to conduct a complete risk analysis with respect to technology failure and improvise alternative measures that can be applied to secure the lives of people. Airplanes operators have also reported cases of experiencing close calls from drones. This may be another impending danger if the routes used by drones are not specifically designed to avoid criss-crossing the paths used by airplanes (Park et al., 2016). As such, the use of drones goes beyond the interests of the company in making profit through timely and convenient delivery. This is so because it has to involve other stake holders in the initiation and implementation of the whole process. This may drive interested people into questioning the viability of this technology with regards to the risk it may pose to the public.
Survival Chances for Drones
Some Amazon logistic analysts in Amazon and Co. argue that transportation of drones cannot be limited by weight or distance. The statistics from Amazon reveal that about eighty-six percent of the packages they deliver weigh less than five pounds. In addition, Walmart has also established that nearly seventy percent of Americans live near a Wal-Mart depot (Wang and Ryan, 2017). The aspect about distance can also be covered by companies moving closer to customers or by opening new branches and depots with the aim of reducing the distance coverage of drones. This in return will ensure that the drones do not travel long distances where they are prone to challenges and which could cause damages to goods in transit therefore the closer the distance the higher the survival chances.
Another plus to the implementation of drone delivery services is the fact that there are some areas in the world that have no access to all weather roads. As such, customers in these places are always forced to pick their goods from the towns that are close by are that are covered by all-weather road networks. This hinders effective business performance since it is easier to implement drone infrastructure than build roads (Wang and Ryan, 2017). This problem can be averted by the use of drones since there are some areas which will never by all-weather roads. Such include hilly areas in which construction of roads can prove to be uneconomical. In such places, drones have higher chance of thriving as the only machines that can ensure effective parcel delivery.
In order to ensure that drones stand the test of time, there are three other considerations that also need to be made. The first consideration is to find a way in which drones will be flown out of the line of sight since the current laws stipulate that it is important for the pilot to make eye contact with the aircraft at all times. Secondly, drones are known to fly with the help of cameras as visual aids. The cameras may fail to display some things. As such, the flight of drones can be made more accurate by the installation of sensors such as the ones used in autonomous cars. With cameras on, the question of privacy also comes into play (Berkowitz, 2014). This implies that sensors may remain to be the best flying aids for drones (Westcott, 2017).
Lastly, it has already been indicated that the current size or types of drones are not capable of carrying heavy goods as compares to trucks which have the capacity to carry a large load over a big distance. Though companies may claim that most of their deliveries are not as heavy, it is important to note that making single deliveries calls for multiple drones. As such the interested companies need to research on a technology that will allow a number of drones to be operated by a single person (Westcott, 2017). The implications brought about by having drones such as being very noisy need to be looked into since it would be very difficult to continue with studies in a place where there are numerous drones in the air on their way to deliver customer orders.
Conclusion
The use of drones would be one of the best technologies in the history of parcel delivery. The companies aspiring to have this project implemented are more than ready to ensure that the project comes to realisation. On the other hand, there are several issues that have been raised by authorities and even by individuals. Such include the issue to do with the privacy, accidents that may be caused by crashing of drones, the nuisance of noise pollution and failure of technology. It is also hard to determine whether these drones can operate in busy areas or out of the line of sight (Westcott, 2017). Other than cost effectiveness and delivery of goods without delay, it is mandatory for the participating companies to ensure that these issues are settled in order to enhance a comprehensive delivery system that is free of posing any dangers to the human population.
References
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Redding, Louis, Rajkumar Roy, and Andy Shaw. “Advances in Through-life Engineering Services.” (2017).
Seo, Seung-Hyun, et al. "A Security Framework for a Drone Delivery Service." Proceedings of the 2nd Workshop on Micro Aerial Vehicle Networks, Systems, and Applications for Civilian Use. ACM, 2016.
Wang, Dan, and Ryan Petersen. "The Economics Of Drone Delivery." Flexport. N.p., 2017. Web. 12 Sept. 2017.
Westcott, Richard. "New Trials For Delivering Goods By Drones." BBC News. N.p., 2016. Web. 12 Sept. 2017.
Zhang, Zhengcheng, and Sheng S. Zhang. Rechargeable Batteries: Materials, Technologies and New Trends. , 2015. Internet resource.
