From flight regulations to the development of a reliable technology, here are all the obstacles for the mass use of drones for deliveries in Industry 4.0
Several large international companies, such as Amazon, Domino’s Pizza and UPS, along with many small and medium-sized enterprises, have been funding research in recent times for shipments and deliveries made with autonomous drones. However, there is no shortage of issues for the development of this technology.
The main obstacle to the mass application of drones in Industry 4.0 is the flight regulations designed for the four-engine drones themselves. Having drones “flutter” without direct control for deliveries in air traffic areas is not allowed, and is unlikely to be allowed anytime soon. In addition, laws on the use of drones often vary from country to country, and it is impossible for a large company to adopt a single drone delivery system worldwide. It must be said, however, that in the United States and Canada a lot of work has been done in recent times to find a compromise between safety and flight height of drones and it is not to be excluded that in the near future these drones will get more freedom.
Drones for deliveries
An obstacle for the implementation of drone-carriers is also the development of a reliable technology. In fact, we have to consider that we are still talking about small four-engine drones that deliver packages suspended in a vacuum and have to find a home where they can release the item and then return. Amazon is the company that has made greater strides in the last period. So much so that the famous e-commerce company has filed a patent for a drone powered by artificial intelligence that can “talk” with a person. The questions that the most skeptical are asking, however, are what happens if the package plummets from the drone, and if the drone gets the wrong address, or is it possible for a cyber criminal to tamper with the aircraft to steal the product being delivered? Until companies solve these questions we are unlikely to see drones making deliveries.
Delivery organization
A problem for drone delivery is also the time it takes to organize the shipment of the order. If a human has to pick up the product and load it by hand the wasted time could be used to load a truck and make many more deliveries, as is the case nowadays. At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), however, they have come up with a solution. Using RFIDÂ (Radio Frequency Identification) tags to identify products the drone goes alone into the warehouse to retrieve the order and then leaves to make the delivery in complete autonomy.