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 :)
I can see a few problems with that.... namely a stiff breeze being the first that springs to mind.
Then there's also leaving a package outside with a highly visible balloon on it.. just asking to be checked out by the local people of light fingered persuasion.
Then there's relying a customer to ensure that the balloon is tied correctly so it doesn't loose pressure before it's been collected.
There's also issues if there's a local powerline/telephone line or if the customer lives in an apartment..
All in all, good idea but massively impractical
The 'Your Amazon' home page may have a new section, though...
"Because you have had goods airdropped by drone delivery service:" followed by a line of things like Neurofen, bandages, witch hazel, ice packs, arnica, etc...
Isn't it about time that the delivery firms actually asked customers at what time of day (and on which day) they wanted their delivery to arrive? If the supermarkets can do this for food and other comestibles why not couriers?
Why do we still have an antiquated 18th C delivery model, when most people are at work when the couriers want to deliver?
In fact: a better idea - get the couriers to deliver to a nominated supermarket and then they can deliver your items along with your shopping.
At least one courier (DPD?) in the UK has a network of shops which will can be used like this - get your parcel delivered to the shop, and pick it up later. They are "useful" shops too, in that they are open in the evenings. My local Sainsbury's was on the list when I looked into using it.
A co-worker has used it successfully once, but was put off when he was able to collect a parcel by walking up to the Customer Service counter and saying "I'm here to pick up a parcel". He was given the parcel with no ID check, and no requirement to sign for it.
I didn't risk using it, and opted to wait in all day on a Saturday.
DPD suck balls though.
"Hi, we are going to deliver your package on a day we know you wont be there. Re-arrange delivery through our website if you arent going to be available, or pick a nominated safe place, etc".
OK, let's log on to their website and pick the 'leave in a safe place - enclosed front porch' option.
At work the next day, receive a text message - 'We attempted to deliver today, but no one was available to accept the package'...
OK. Perhaps the delivery guy didn't read the instructions too closely, so let just save trouble and rearrange delivery to my local pickup stop - a newsagents just down the road. Confirmation text message received the next morning that my package would be delivered according to my preferences later that day. While at work, I receive another text saying my package wouldn't be delivered to my pickup location, as the item was 'unsuitable' for store delivery and would be delivered to my home address (which of course meant I wouldn't be there yet again).
OK, let's log on yet again and pick the 'deliver to a neighbour' option.
On the way home the next evening, after not receiving any more messages, decided to check the tracking. Apparently the item was 'picked up from the depot' (on the far side of London) from someone called 'DISPOSED EMPTY'. Apparently they considered their job adequately complete at that point.
The item in question? a £2 fidget spinner (not for me I might add!) that could have fit through my letterbox, that didn't even require a signature...
Current multi-rotor drones, powered by lithium batteries, won't have the required efficiency, durability or flight time.
Therefore, the delivery radius will be quite short, they will need to return to base quite often, they will need to spend a lot of time & battery juice slowing down and speeding up. All of this will reduce the total number of deliveries per hour.
What's necessary, from an Amazon efficiency perspective, is a drone that can carry the optimal number of packages, to the most homes, within the shortest timeframe. Battery drones cannot do this - the *only* option is a fixed-wing drone that can carry multiple items to many homes, delivering items very accuratesly, and will last a long time in the air for the occasional house that is further away than all the others. Perhaps Amazon could add, say, a 20p surcharge for deliveries away from "clustered" homes.
Ultimately, I think Amazon will move to a fixed-wing "divebombing" style delivery sytem - drones will swoop down to deploy one or more individual "packagelets", which means that the parachute system will be more accurate.
People could also have the option of buying their own "packagelet" collection net, and they would get a very small discount on each order due to Amazon not needing to use their parachute delivery mechanism.
If there is no significant advancement in battery technology, then my expectation is that when civilians move to an electric car infrastructure, there will be a period where drones will use the surplus of cheap petrol. (supply/demand = cheap oil)
I won't downvote you, but... there are two options. They have already trialed transition to vertical flight versions of the drones and why not just limit this to small local delivery points? We have already transitioned to local supermarket deliveries here... Or is that, milk float -> buying from the supermarket -> supermarket delivering milk.
This reminds me of the re-invention of the 3d tele/cinema every few years, and that can be traced back 100 years to stereographs! But here it is delivery methods, where really anyone could be delivering this, and the drone is generally just changing who gets the money (until real benefits of scale and automation kick in).
Current multi-rotor drones....
So, if they could parachute tat to the masses, why would they be using a rotor drone? The obvious examples of drone deliveries to date have involved fixed wing techniques, albeit with the last mile managed by rocketry rather than parachute.
If they could use fixed wing drones, now THAT might revolutionise merchandise delivery. Other than for the dismal success rate likely from parachute deliveries.
I would have thought SOE would have all the necessary prior art on this one. Isn't putting the parachute inside the shipping label a trivial extension to dropping stuff all over Occupied Europe during WW2? As the arrangements were often made by secure radio communication, it would seem that all the technology of goods delivery by aircraft + drop should be now long out of any patentability.
Calling it a lablel with an integrated parachute is the weirdness that caught my eye. It's a flat packed parachute with a label attached. Worse, they are even trying to include as part of the patent the idea of putting coloured logos on the label. I think that may have a smidge of prior art too.
said the email.
Customer looks for said parcel and can't find it.
The complain to Amazon who supply photographic evidence.
Customer finds the parcel snagged on the TV Ariel on the roof.
Cost customer another £20 to get someone to go up on the roof to get the goods. So much for free delivery.
Customer vows never to use Amazon again.
Customer vows never to use Amazon again
If that isn't illegal already it soon will be.
First Commandment: You shall have no other Gods but me. (No change)
Second Commandment: You shall not make for yourself any idol, nor bow down to it or worship it unless the idol is Amazon or its founder. (Only a small addition)
Third commandment: You shall not misuse the name of the Bezos your God. (Only a small change)
You get the idea...
Use catapults/slingshots (for leftpondians) from local depots to deliver ballistically.
Here is a guy who should be able to come up with the goods: (NSFW) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFISeJ1N5CQ
A German with a sense of humour and genuinely innovative engineering skills.
Didn't one of his songs have a deep and meaningful end section relevant to this situation?
Ah yes...
"I'm goin down, down, down, down
I'm goin down, down, down, down
I'm goin down, down, down, down
I'm goin down, down, down, down
I'm goin down, down, down, down
I'm goin down, down, down, down
I'm goin down, down, down, down
I'm goin down, hey bopa d-d-down
I'm goin down, down, down, down
I'm goin down, hey bopa d-d-down
I'm goin down, down, down, yeah
I'm goin down, down, hey bopa hey bopa
Hey hey mmm bopa bopa well down
Hey babe mmm bopa bopa said down
Hey hey mmm bopa bopa well down
Hey hey mmm bopa bopa say
Hey unh say down, down, down, down, down
Hey down now, say down, down, down, down, down"
Do they have another patent for doing returns via Fulton recovery?
I wonder how they will affix the shipping labels to the parcel to stop them coming off when the parachute deploys - after all the shipping material is only made up of paper or cardboard. Sometimes they are stuck on really well, other times they have nearly fallen off by the time they get to you - and that's without some huge jerk as the parachute opens up to slow them down.
The application of a little drop of water that is traditional in these parts clearly won't help with structural integrity of the parcel and its safe arrival either.
Anyone want to guess how many parcels will have proof of delivery showing something like "delivery location:" Roof / pond / top of hedge / neighbours garden.
Second thought - note to self, don't order anything fragile or of value off Amazon until this idea has passed by.
They could dispense with the drones, and just fire your parcel directly from an artillery base/distribution warehouse. sticky-taping a handkerchief to the label will ensure safe delivery to the correct address and all will be wonderful.
This is probably worthy of a patent in its own right.
Consumer Law Section:
Your client has ordered an embarrassing item from Amazon but on delivery the drone flew through the legally private airspace of Neighbour A, snagged on a branch in a tree of Neighbour B, which then broke depositing the package through the roof of Neighbour C's greenhouse causing $2,000 of damage.
Q1. Who is liable for the damage to the greenhouse?
Q2. Can your client sue for damages caused by the inadvertent disclosure of their embarrassing personal proclivities to Neighbour C from whom they retrieved the package?
Q3. If instead the package was actually ordered from and delivered by Best Buy who are using an innovative and novel 'singular' parachute cord in their delivery system for which they have a valid patent with USPTO but an ongoing, unresolved dispute with Amazon regarding who has the silliest patent. Does this permit an uplift in litigation costs and should you re-apply as a patent lawyer?
"...how the hell this will work for apartment blocks?"
It won't work for appartment blocks. Perhaps you could tell us how the delivery person on foot, who does deliver to appartment blocks, is going to deliver to remote and isolated rural addresses.
Of course if you look only for the cases where it won't work...
"Parcel Cannon", a device used to apply acceleration to a parcel or package for the purposes of delivery. Acceleration to be achieved via transformation of any energy source directly or indirectly into kinetic energy imparted to parcel/package
I give this concept of a device for firing parcels either from the air/sea/land or space to the public domain.
I think back to my sky diving days, and wonder what sort of plan they have to "disengage" the shoot once it hits the ground.
Oh well, all it will take is for one bird to get caught up in a shoot, or some endanged frog to get squashed and PETA will shut it down.
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