Amazon has filed for a patent to use flying warehouses or airborne fulfillment centers (AFCs) to store products and use a fleet of drones to make deliveries to customers.
The application that was actually filed in 2014 was noticed on December 28 by Zoe Leavitt, an analyst at CB Insights.
The patent filing says drones will be launched from giant airships or AFCs that would hover at about 45,000 feet above metropolitan areas. These airships would store items for quick delivery at times of high demands. Amazon would use “shuttles or smaller airships” to restock these AFCs. Delivery of items would be accomplished using drones that would be launched from the airships. The drones dispatched from these AFCs would use far less power compared to drones launched from the ground.
“The AFC may be an airship that remains at a high altitude (eg 45,000 feet) and UAVs with ordered items may be deployed from the AFC to deliver ordered items to user-designated delivery locations,” the patent filing reads.
“As the UAVs descend, they can navigate horizontally toward a user-specified delivery location using little to no power, other than to stabilise the UAV and/or guide the direction of descent. Shuttles [smaller airships] may be used to replenish the AFC with inventory, UAVs, supplies, fuel, etc. Likewise, the shuttles may be utilised to transport workers to and from the AFC.”
The patent explains that AFC would not only save power but would also offer other benefits such as the ability to position one close to certain areas at specific times.
“For example, a temporal event (e.g., a football game) may be expected to produce a demand for certain types of items (e.g., sporting paraphernalia, food products, etc.).”
Amazon is currently working on its plans to start using drones for deliveries next year. The company has already started testing drone deliveries in the UK. Earlier this month, the first commercial trial delivery was made in Cambridgeshire. Most of the firms that are experimenting with drone technology have been facing difficulty increasing the range of the drone. In UK, Amazon is currently carrying out drone trials with items weighing 5 lb or less and delivery time limited to 30 minutes.
Founded in July 1994 and based in Seattle, Washington, Amazon (precisely Amazon.com) is an American e-commerce and cloud computing company. The company was founded by Jeff Bezos and is today the world’s largest Internet-based retailer by total sales and market capitalization. In its early days, Amazon was an online bookstore. Later it started selling CDs, DVDs, Blu-rays, software, video games, video downloads/streaming, apparel, electronics, furniture, toys, jewelry, and much more. Today, it is largest provider of cloud infrastructure services in the word. Amazon also produces consumer electronics—including, Amazon Kindle e-readers, Fire TV and Fire tablets. Amazon now offers separate retail websites for the US, the UK, Canada, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Netherlands, Brazil, Japan, Australia, India, China, and Mexico.
You must be logged in to post a comment.