Amazon granted patent to put parachutes inside shipping labels Amazon has been given a patent on a system to deliver packages from the sky via on-board parachutes. The Bezos Bunch has filed with the US Patent and Trademark Office and been granted a patent for a system that will cram parachutes into shipping labels. The on-board parachute functions as you would think: an adhesive label on …
Indeed, and I don't see what value Amazon think this patent adds to their idea.
If they're going to do delivery by drone, they're only going to be allowed to do so if the whole set up meets the requirements of the local aviation authorities. That means, amongst other things, that every aspect of drone flight, control and navigation is a safety critical system. We don't want drones buzzing around the place out of control, running out of battery power and landing on a motorway, crashing on to people, etc.
Given that here in the UK at least the whole remote drone / UAV community has effectively been told "your systems will have to be certified as safety critical", one does wonder why anyone is persisting with the idea. Achieving certification for things as madly complicated as this is going to be ludicrously expensive. Realisation will eventually dawn I'm sure, but not until after a lot of people who should know better have spent a lot of someone elses money on false pretences.
[Rabbit hole. When that realisation dawns it'll be very bad for the tech sector as a whole; if investors start thinking that the tech industry is leading them up the garden path with drone this, self-driving that, AI the next thing, then investment in tech could easily dry up altogether. There's a lot of money being poured into a lot of very ambitious projects that really have very little prospect of succeeding even if you did throw $billions at them, and investors will remember...]
However, if by some miracle they actually managed to achieve some sort of certification, they'd have produced a drone system that doesn't drop need to randomly drop packages by parachute, so they won't need it.
Pond
In fact, dropping something by 'chute sounds like a way of introducing uncontrollable randomness into where the package actually ends up, which can be only a bad thing. What's to stop the package drifting off and landing in, for example, my pond? Are they also planning on using IP68 packaging? I can't see how they'd make that simple to open...
Well I already had one Amazon delivery that I found three weeks later after a period of intense rain languishing in the middle of the side garden after amazon claimed to have delivered it to the front porch.
So it will merely formalize the random delivery of parcels into accessible recondite areas of unsuitable delivery.
As I boy I spent many hours searching for model planes that had unexpectedly actually flown well enough to be outside of a 50 yard radius from launch.
Perhaps this will be part of a 'citizens fitness' initiative.
There are likely two reasons for this patent. Firstly, it keeps the competitors guessing. Secondly, it's a market disruptor. Are they ever likely to use it? I doubt it. But if they do find some way to make it feasible then the presence of the patent makes it harder for their competitors to copy and probably dissuades them from exploring similar avenues. To be honest: enclosing a parachute in a container - how is that even allowed as a patent?
"Pond
In fact, dropping something by 'chute sounds like a way of introducing uncontrollable randomness into where the package actually ends up, which can be only a bad thing. What's to stop the package drifting off and landing in, for example, my pond? "
At least with all the bubble-wrap it'll float
"No overhead wires here either, but within a 100 ft of where I'm sitting there is a big tree, some lampposts and of course the roofs of the houses in my street."
The same here, plus being under the landing path of a small-ish airport (busy with private jets, not airlines or light aircraft)
I'm sure delivery drones would be well received...
A quick Google search for parachute failures netted figures between 1 in 333 and 1 in 1000, with the most reputable estimates seeming to be around 1 in 750.
Keep in mind recreational skydivers carry a reserve 'chute as well as their main 'chute, and the reserves have a pretty low failure rate, so most of these aren't fatalities.
I don't think 1 in every 1000 packages plummeting from the sky is going to be very successful, although I am reminded of the Schlock Mercenary observation that "anything can be air-dropped at least once."
The one I remembered was using longer-range winged variety (possibly actual UAVs?) but couldn't remember where from - from the report is looked like they had started with a fairly Heath-Robinson setup and worked from there.
A few examples => mentioned here though I couldn't be sure if any were the one I remembered...
I don't quite understand this fear. It's not like it's ever been hard to steal packages from people's porches, front gardens, garden sheds etc.
What is stopping people is, mostly, honesty, and that will continue to stop most people. Of course those who that won't stop, already aren't stopped from stealing.
the shipping label also deployed a harpoon and a spool of monofilament. A ballistic harpoon would leave the package targeting the delivery site and a small motor would spool the line in so the parachute would land the package on target every time, thus avoiding the problem of shifting wind.
... there was some way to embed an anchor point sensor into logos from Nickleson, McKenzie, Schott, Fubu, Eto, No Fear, Carbrini, Paul's Boutique, Superdry, Lonsdale, etc. IoT - Internet of Targets. It might clear the streets a bit, but one of the downsides is that all deliveries made this way would end up sat outside the nearest Sports Direct store...
under the Air Navigation Orders, is to cause anything to be dropped from an aircraft other than pure water or clean fine sand (ballast, basically). The military get an exemption for go-bang stuff, and parachutists are considered aircraft in their own right (but who on earth would get out of a perfectly good aircraft and hope theirs starts to work on the way down?).
Hard to see which category a parcel of books fits into.
(but who on earth would get out of a perfectly good aircraft and hope theirs starts to work on the way down?).
Have done it once and would jump at the chance to do it again.
Short of a couple of religious experiences, Skydiving is the most fun thing I've ever done in my life, and I am someone quite scared of heights. I got to do a tandem jump some years back and would love to be able to do it again! Doesn't last nearly as long as mountain climbing (which I've done a bit of), but is way more fun and you get the view without the massive workout! :)
Thoroughly recommend it to anyone else!
(Again, El Reg is lacking anything even close to an appropriate icon)
Does it also specify the load baring rate of the box and adhesive properties in low temperatures?
Not to mention moist weather.
Just imagine, one short sharp jolt as the parachute opens and suddenly it's raining contents as the box falls apart.
Maybe an air raid siren might be in order to warn people below?
Sounds to me like a bogus patent to stifle potential innovation by competitors. With the news, everybody now knows Amazon is working with the idea of parachute parcels (and they have exclusive patent on it). If it comes to nothing, no worries. But if it's the new big thing - let's talk licencing! (kerching!!!)
Sounds to me like a bogus patent to stifle potential innovation by competitors.
Sounds to me like a pointless patent from a department who's KPIs and bonuses include a target for number of patents filed. Amazon don't see themselves as the same "big warehouse + tax dodging webshop" that the rest of us do, they think they're a cutting edge technology company, the sort that thrives on intellectual property. There will be entire divisions devoted to research, and to prove their worth they'll be patenting anything they can, regardless of real world value.
If there's nothing else, they'll happily patent "Disclosed is a unique and innovative system of lifting one buttock to reduce stress on the anal sphincter, thus reducing the probability of noisy flatus" and hope that (as usual) USPO ignore all the evidence of prior art.
They are also meant to be inventive.
I'm pretty sure delivering goods by dropping them out of aircraft attached to parachutes is not inventive.
Having labels on them describing where they should be dropped isn't inventive.
Self adhesive parachute connectors may be inventive I guess - after all most people would want a better guarantee that the parachute stays attached to the cargo all the way down.
Just what I always wanted
To have my packages conveniently delivered onto my roof, or a neighbor's tree!
At least Amazon can't patent that idea because it's already been done...
It would also solve some of the issues surrounding drones flying at low altitudes near power lines and other potential hazards.
Solve...? Solve? If there are hazards to flying smallish "controllable" devices, how does dropping a very much larger and completely uncontrollable parachute solve anything?
Returns are easily handled if the 'Monofilament' idea is used !!! :)
You have in the package a small 'Dayglo' Balloon with a canister of Helium (size of a CO2 bulb for a Soda Syphon).
You attach the Balloon to the Monofilament and the package to the other end.
Release the Balloon and the balloon acts as a target for a slow motion 'Skyhook' manoeuvre by drone.
The drone can then wind up the Monofilament to obtain the package.
[All perfectly safe, no bursts Balloons, snapped Monofilament or packages bursting open !!! :) ]
When flying taxis are allowed, we can go for the real 'Skyhook' manoeuvre, under contract to Amazon via UberAir or whoever :)
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