USPS Shortlists 'HorseFly' Octocopter Drone Delivery Service 67
An anonymous reader writes: The likes of GM and Nissan are keeping unusual company in the bidding war to build and deliver the next generation of delivery vehicles for the U.S. Postal Service. Workhorse Group Inc. have made it to the 16-company shortlist with their octocopter drone delivery system, developed by the University of Cincinnati College of Engineering and Applied Science. The self-guiding UAV 'HorseFly' has multiple hardware and software redundancy systems and launches from its special host van 'WorkHorse' to get the parcel the final hurdle to the door. The drone can recharge itself wirelessly in two minutes at base, and calculates its own routes from the van to the destination door.
but will (Score:3)
the customers (snail mail spammers) pay for this?
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It's cheaper than people.
It's cheaper than pre-funding a new-hire's pension for 75 years.
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A self-driving van with delivery drone or drones may be cost effective compared to human postal worker driving, parking, and walking from door to door. That doesn't sound completely absurd to me.
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Only if postal workers are overpaid relative to the value of their skills.
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I'm the guy arguing that employing people for package delivery is more economical that employing robots.
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Only if postal workers are overpaid relative to the value of their skills.
Why would the per hour cost of the drone be higher than even a minimum wage worker?
The drone can work more than one shift.
The drone doesn't take vacations.
The drone doesn't waste time chatting with co-workers.
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The drone doesn't waste time chatting with co-workers.
... or posting on Slashdot :)
Re: I don't understand (Score:2)
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Not until they install G.P.P.
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The drone is out there.
The drone can't be bargained with.
The drone can't be reasoned with.
The drone doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear.
And the drone absolutely will not stop, ever, until the parcel is delivered!
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The thing is that automation reduces the value of their skills. You could pay someone to dig a ditch, or you can use a backhoe. One only has to look around to see that the backhoe is a lot more cost effective.
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But the backhoe operator is paid a lot more than the shovel operator. Because automation boosted his productivity by 50-100x.
I don't think drones can boost package delivery productivity enough to even pay for the drone itself -- unless the people delivering the packages are artificially overpaid by 5-10x already.
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But the backhoe operator is paid a lot more than the shovel operator. Because automation boosted his productivity by 50-100x.
Yes, and he displaced x number of workers in the process. On the other hand, his increased productivity allows projects which previously were cost prohibitive, so he creates some more good jobs at the expense of those very low-end jobs.
I don't think drones can boost package delivery productivity enough to even pay for the drone itself -- unless the people delivering the packages are artificially overpaid by 5-10x already.
I think you are probably right with today's technology, but this area has been progressing very quickly. Package delivery is not something that really requires a human, so it is ripe for automation. When we get to the point where regular people are being chauffeured around by
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What about installing tubes to each and every door? They did it for people on Futurama, I don't see why it couldn't work for packages a thousand years earlier.
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This craze with delivery drones, or am I the only one who thinks it's overkill?
I think if you have one company in a city that had the delivery franchise, and sold delivery services to everyone who wanted delivery services via drone, you could probably make it work, especially if you had limited flight corridors, they were rather silent, and you automated the traffic control. I think you'd also want delivery lock boxes that standard box sizes got delivered into, and the ability to text an access code to the recipient for them to collect their package - and oly theirs - from the lock b
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How much time (=money) is wasted by the UPS guy parking and carrying a package up to your door? The truck could instead be outfitted with a dozen drones so the UPS guy just stops, loads all the small packages for a several block radius, and then starts plugging in the returning drones as he finishes with the last of the loading. You could easily double or even quadruple the number of deliveries per man-hour that way - and annual drone expenses are going to become far less than annual wages, if they aren't
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Probably need three, maybe four delivery guys to service the greater Manhattan area.
Because the drones will enter office buildings and deliver packages door-to-door and collect signatures?
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Because the drones will enter office buildings and deliver packages door-to-door and collect signatures?
UPS and FedEx allow me to pre-sign for packages via their website.
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That pretty much negates the reason for signatures.
No it doesn't. If I pre-sign, then I can't later claim I didn't receive the package. But I would rather pay for another shipment than stay home from work.
In fact if I required a signature for delivery and they allowed you to "pre-sign" on the web. I would consider that a violation of my agreement with them as the shipper
If I am accepting responsibility, then why do you care? Maybe you should stop checking the "signature required" box every time you ship someone a $4 thumb drive.
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Agreed.
Maybe there will be certain neighborhoods that can be designed so this will work well, and they can be labeled as such and given drone priority shipping or something. I have trouble picturing any environment where this would work well, let alone better than a mailman (unless your particular mailman is especially poor at his job, but that's a different problem).
Droning on and on and on and on... (Score:2)
guess I better start figuring whether hydraulics or steam pistons would be the best way to build a HorseFly Swatter. I can dismantle an Audi for the radar, provided I find one in the open when it's dark....
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You forgot the "Muhahahahahaha!"
What a time to be alive... (Score:4, Interesting)
http://www.nydailynews.com/new... [nydailynews.com]
CAUTION: Please wait until noise has receded before checking your mail.
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Don't turn this into a competition to Google for deaths by postal truck!
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The Trex 700N is an aerobatic flying lawnmower, with no shield or guard to prevent you from hitting the blade. They are extremely dangerous and are not toys.
The octocopter's blades are much smaller and have way less momentum. Unless the octocopter hit you in the eye or fell from an extreme height, there's virtually no way to cause permanent damage with the octocopter. Many
but will (Score:5, Funny)
But will it be able to deliver mail to the White house?
Re:but will (Score:5, Informative)
It first goes to an off-site location to be checked.
Public education creates, private company profits? (Score:2)
>> Workhorse Group Inc....their octocopter drone delivery system, developed by the University of Cincinnati College of Engineering and Applied Science.
Can someone explain this part? On the surface it just looks like "public education creates, private company profits."
So about 8' from my front door? (Score:5, Interesting)
That thing is freaking huge. Each copter arm has to be at least 4' - 5' long. Factor in the roof overhang over my front door, and the landscaping, and the closest this thing could get a package to my doorstep would be about 8' away, but that puts it right into another landscaped area. So, my packages will either be somewhere in my front yard or on my driveway. All of this just so a postal worker doesn't have to get up out of a seat and walk the package all the way to my door?
PROGRESS!
Re:So about 8' from my front door? (Score:5, Funny)
That is why it is equipped with a small catapult.
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That is why it is equipped with a small catapult.
Obligatory xkcd [xkcd.com]
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it will not only drop off your package at your door but it will also trim your hedges....and trees...and roof...and head if your too close.
Re:So about 8' from my front door? (Score:4, Funny)
You are probably not the target market for this since you live in a densely populated area.
I live in an area where the spacing between houses averages over a quarter-mile in any direction. I would love for a drone to deliver my packages instead of the lazy delivery driver just saying "address doesn't exist" or "cannot find address" because they don't want to drive down my road.
It might annoy my donkey, though, but I'll risk coming home to an annoyed donkey in exchange for actually getting my packages.
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I live in an area where the spacing between houses averages over a quarter-mile in any direction. I would love for a drone to deliver my packages instead of the lazy delivery driver just saying "address doesn't exist" or "cannot find address" because they don't want to drive down my road.
These things are cool and all that, but I don't see them being good for your case either. Just how far do you think they can travel with a big package? And how many of those deliveries can they make before their battery is dead? And how would that be more efficient than just driving that 1/4 mile? Your mailman just needs replaced.
On the other side of the scale, in tightly packed downtown areas, they're also virtually useless. You've got a bunch of people so close that it's a 10 - 20 foot walk between multi-
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I think you are right there.
In rural areas, the house might be a significant distance from the road. I know the family farmhouse is at least 1/4 mile from the road, which means packages must be picked up at the post office, or at the UPS store in town.
Sending a drone to get even close to the house would be easy, and unlike in a urban/sub-urban area there is a lot of area that is not casually visible from the road.
I can see a marker of some sort to give the drone an idea of where you want it to drop things o
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How much to you think it costs to employ a rural delivery driver? How many packages to you think rural people receive? (Exclude heavy or bulky packages, anything delivered in bad weather, anything that requires a signature, etc.) How much do you think autonomous flying drones (big enough to carry a substantial package) cost?
Think about it. How long will it take the drone to pay for itself?
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The drone in that photo is closer than the truck... It's called perspective. Look into it.
Get it? Cause, perspective?
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Nah, it just flies as low as it safely can and drops the package on your sidewalk - what's one more impact in the standard package-mangling regime?
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Im 90% sure that image is a mockup. The link to Federal times has a much more realistic image [gannett-cdn.com].
The Federal Times also notes that the drone is 10 lbs, which further cements my belief that the massive drone in the picture is a mockup or test device.
Horseflies (Score:2)
obligatory Dilbert (Score:2)
http://webcache.googleusercont... [googleusercontent.com]
Guard dogs? (Score:2)
When my dog barked at the UPS guy he reached into his pocket and handed the dog a biscuit; dog ran off happy and the UPS guy never broke stride.
I'm not sure would happen if one of those things tried to deliver a package.
Steampunk it! (Score:2)
Drones hit mainstream (Score:2)
I want to see proof. Photos of a hovering drone says nothing nowadays. ...and especially from a penny stock company [otcmarkets.com] that appears to be teaming up with a university to push gov't SBAS contracts. Oh, the gov't cash cow!
Really, even Google's '8 guys surrounding a drone' video doesn't show autonomous capability--though their cars are a different story (i.e. real).
Nowadays, I see 9 or 10 companies touting fully autonomous flight, redundancy and delivery, RTF, ready to go, 1hr flight, 1min charge--I want to see a
Does the FAA know? (Score:1)
This thing fails a number of the FAA's requirements. While it *is* line of sight, it is not being controlled by a certified pilot. How has the college been flying it?