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In Seattle, at least, it's very common for apartments to have tiny private balconies. If a drone can deliver to one of those, it will be more convenient than t

by jtolmar 10y ago

In Seattle, at least, it's very common for apartments to have tiny private balconies. If a drone can deliver to one of those, it will be more convenient than trying to deal with the average apartment complex's mailroom.

sqeaky 10y ago
This sounds interesting but there are at least some problems to overcome to make it practical. How does the drone identify apartment 5b from 4c? Most balconies like that in my area (Omaha) have another balcony on the next floor up in roughly the same size and shape. How reliable are the flight algorithms when dealing with cielings? How does that affect airflow? What happens when a drone gets the wrong balcony? What happens when a drone delivery is canceled because of patio furniture, potted plants, incorrect patio dimension from the local record keepers or whatever other problem with a private landing platform? None of these are insurmountable, they just haven't been surmounted yet.
- jtolmar 10y ago
  My preferred solution for a variety of these is that you buy a transmitter from Amazon, and the drone tries to home in on it once it gets to your address. The ideal transmitter would be wide and flat, so the drone can just drop packages on it, and so any place you could fit it also has a reasonable chance of having enough clearance. You could incentivize buying them using the same mechanics as Amazon's dash buttons. Doesn't help with complex patio furniture though, and ceilings are a genuinely hard problem. (Most apartments in Seattle are like that too.)
  - sqeaky 10y ago
    The thing could even fold up for easy storage. If it could unfold to be a square a meter in size (or a bit larger) then Amazon could get even to the point where they land or hover just above. It could have tiny legs and the actual target area could be a foot above the ground and it could be a net (so the wind the drone makes blows through harmlessly). Then it can catch a package dropped from a few feet. Amazon, you have my written permission to use this idea and sell me this product.
- discreteevent 10y ago
  > How does the drone identify apartment 5b from 4c? Go out on the balcony with a phone app that prompts you to take pictures of the view in all directions. It sends these along with GPS coordinates to Amazon. Drone flies to GPS coordinates and then descends until it's views 'match' those in the pictures you took.

by jtolmar 10y ago

sqeaky 10y ago

This sounds interesting but there are at least some problems to overcome to make it practical. How does the drone identify apartment 5b from 4c? Most balconies like that in my area (Omaha) have another balcony on the next floor up in roughly the same size and shape. How reliable are the flight algorithms when dealing with cielings? How does that affect airflow? What happens when a drone gets the wrong balcony? What happens when a drone delivery is canceled because of patio furniture, potted plants, incorrect patio dimension from the local record keepers or whatever other problem with a private landing platform? None of these are insurmountable, they just haven't been surmounted yet.

jtolmar 10y ago
My preferred solution for a variety of these is that you buy a transmitter from Amazon, and the drone tries to home in on it once it gets to your address. The ideal transmitter would be wide and flat, so the drone can just drop packages on it, and so any place you could fit it also has a reasonable chance of having enough clearance. You could incentivize buying them using the same mechanics as Amazon's dash buttons. Doesn't help with complex patio furniture though, and ceilings are a genuinely hard problem. (Most apartments in Seattle are like that too.)
- sqeaky 10y ago
  The thing could even fold up for easy storage. If it could unfold to be a square a meter in size (or a bit larger) then Amazon could get even to the point where they land or hover just above. It could have tiny legs and the actual target area could be a foot above the ground and it could be a net (so the wind the drone makes blows through harmlessly). Then it can catch a package dropped from a few feet. Amazon, you have my written permission to use this idea and sell me this product.
discreteevent 10y ago
> How does the drone identify apartment 5b from 4c? Go out on the balcony with a phone app that prompts you to take pictures of the view in all directions. It sends these along with GPS coordinates to Amazon. Drone flies to GPS coordinates and then descends until it's views 'match' those in the pictures you took.