Amazon Is Working On Hot Air Balloon Drone That Approaches Homes Silently (slashgear.com) 94
Amazon has been granted a patent that describes an "unmanned aerial vehicle with inflatable membrane" that would allow it to approach homes silently. The UAV "would have a balloon hidden inside the chasis," reports Slashgear. "That could be inflated using compressed gas, via a tank or chamber also carried on the drone. When the UAV roamed into an area where noise levels needed to be cut -- such as the delivery location, Amazon suggests -- the balloon could be inflated." From the report: In the process it would mean that the traditional drone propellers would have less work to do, since the UAV's buoyancy would be taken care of by the balloon. All the motors would be required for is general positioning. Amazon doesn't envisage flying the drone like a miniature zeppelin, however. Instead, the balloon system would be used to raise and lower the UAV to and from the delivery location. In that way it could help reduce the noise -- and energy -- involved in achieving a cruising altitude, whereupon the balloon would be deflated and gathered back into its dock.
The drone would proceed to the delivery destination, and then the balloon would be reinflated. That could be used to then gently lower the aircraft to the ground, to leave behind its package. Of course, having an inflating balloon near a system of fast-spinning propellers seems like a recipe for disaster, and so part of Amazon's patent outlines the retracting mechanism by which the two elements would be kept apart. The whole thing would be handled by an onboard autopilot, with the balloon reeled back into the storage area. The drone could either return the gas used for inflation to the compression chamber, or allow it to escape. Indeed, another possibility that Amazon suggests is a completely detachable balloon. That, the patent describes, might then float away, or biodegrade, rather than being reused.
The drone would proceed to the delivery destination, and then the balloon would be reinflated. That could be used to then gently lower the aircraft to the ground, to leave behind its package. Of course, having an inflating balloon near a system of fast-spinning propellers seems like a recipe for disaster, and so part of Amazon's patent outlines the retracting mechanism by which the two elements would be kept apart. The whole thing would be handled by an onboard autopilot, with the balloon reeled back into the storage area. The drone could either return the gas used for inflation to the compression chamber, or allow it to escape. Indeed, another possibility that Amazon suggests is a completely detachable balloon. That, the patent describes, might then float away, or biodegrade, rather than being reused.
Creeper (Score:5, Funny)
Bezos, come on, don't be a creeper.
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I do not think you successfully translated the word "creeper."
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The drone comes with a built in camera and microphone and will hang around your bedroom window for a few minutes before delivery, peeking in through the curtains.
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How else could it send push ads for nicer drapes and bedsheets
without judging the cheap WalMart crap you have now?
Patent is not "work" (Score:2)
An interesting bit of trivia but why is this news? Companies like Amazon files thousands of patents annually. Most of them never make it into production. It doesn't mean they are "working" on it at all. In fact the idea seems largely impractical on many levels and is probably more defensive than real.
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The patent office doesn't work that way anymore. Everything is granted now, provided the necessary paperwork has been done. Any issues of a patent being valid or not is now decided after the fact in a lawsuit.
Would you allow aircraft in your neighborhood? (Score:2)
Mod parent up.
Would you allow aircraft in your neighborhood? Drones can be DANGEROUS! [slashdot.org]
Hydrogen is a good alternative (Score:2)
Hindenburg did that years ago (Score:2)
Hindenburg did that years ago
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Where are they going to find enough politicians to power the fleet?
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The machine gun is only for non Amazon Prime members.
Amazon Prime members will have access to control the drones that have Primed weapons.
Patented... (Score:2)
Hot Air Balloon Drone Approaches Homes Silently (Score:4, Funny)
Looks like this patent granted one day late... (Score:2)
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All this stuff to deliver my $5 USB cable ???
Sure it's delivering $5 cable, but it might notice your lawn isn't very green, so suggest fertilizer. It can see you having sex in your bedroom so might suggest curtains on sale. Peaking in through your windows it might see a Roku box and suggest you "upgrade" to the latest Fire Stick instead.
Steampunk anybody? (Score:2)
These people have too much money to play with ideas which are not really scalable and have a ton of issues which are not fixable. For example, wind. Airships and blimps had massive issues in the past. To use hot air does not remove these issues instead it is increasing them, as you need an even bigger balloon to lift the same mass and you need to constantly heat the shit up. It makes more sense to extend the capacity of mass transit in cities to be able to use it for the transport of goods. In a multi-modal
Re:Steampunk anybody? (Score:4, Funny)
These people have too much money to play with ideas which are not really scalable and have a ton of issues which are not fixable.
That sounds like a description of the Pentagon.
Oh, it is ..... (Score:2)
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/m... [cbsnews.com]
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That sounds like a description of the Pentagon.
Who also have an interest in drones that can approach homes silently.
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Where does the poster get "hot air" from (Score:5, Interesting)
... a compressed gas chamber configured to contain a gas that is lighter than air; an inflatable membrane configured to be inflated with gas from the compressed gas chamber; ...
this is obviously not a hot air baloon
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The patent actually says hydrogen or helium for the lighter than air gas. What a great way to deplete our helium stores, or alternately make very loud explosions possible in our neighborhoods.
Amazon, silent but deadly! (Score:4, Funny)
Physics still says no (Score:5, Informative)
A cubic meter of air at standard atmospheric conditions (0C, 1ATM) has a mass of 1.3Kg. If you had a perfect vacuum and somehow the walls were negligible yet able to stand that pressure, a balloon 1 meter in each side would only be able to carry a handful of tubes of toothpaste which are about 0.2Kg each, yet the craft would be the size of a doorway.
Re:Physics still says no (Score:4, Informative)
Where does it say they are using standard air for it?
Hint: Archimedes' principle. [wikipedia.org]
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You’re thinking backwards. OP is saying that if you somehow managed to achieve a perfect vacuum in the balloon (i.e. the ideal hypothetical condition), it’d still only displace such-and-such air, meaning it could only achieve that much buoyancy. Having established the best case buoyancy possible, filling the balloon with anything more than a vacuum will merely add weight that will then count against that buoyancy, thus reducing your cargo limit.
That said, I don’t see the problem that the O
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Heck, just parachute it out of a plane at 30,000 feet. It will still be about as accurate as Amazon's van deliveries, at least if the giant pile of random free crap that I've gotten over the years is any indication. (BTW, anybody want a pair of women's exercise shorts?)
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If you are looking for about a 10lb (~5kg) carrying capacity, you're talking about a 10 cubic meter balloon, accounting for the fact it's not a vacuum inside, and it needs to be carrying all the winches, drone parts, navigation stuff, and communication parts. (Taking the GP's estimates from above and tweaking them.)
That means you're looking at a cube that's about 2m (6 feet) on a side. Or a tube that's like 5m (15 feet) long.
It's one thing for package thieves to drive around looking for unattended packages.
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It's one thing for package thieves to drive around looking for unattended packages. It's a much different thing to notify them of a delivery using a car-sized balloon with the amazon logo on it floating high over a neighborhood.
This sort of thinking bothers me, because it suggests X won't work because X has a problem, without regard for the fact that the current situation is FAR worse.
As things stand now, thieves don't need to spot the delivery vehicles or see them making their deliveries in order to steal their packages. They don't need to enter private areas or loiter in ways that would make them obvious to observant neighbors. They don't even need to have any special knowledge or awareness, since any given neighborhood will be
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patent (Score:4, Funny)
it's just one of many patents, until i actually see this drone in action, i consider this patent to be nothing more then a bag of hot air.
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Companies make a business out of creating randomized patents. The patent creators probably have zero interest in them becoming an actual product. Many companies give out bonuses for filing patents, or worse, create patent quotas for some departments. Seriously I've been somewhere that had a goal for X patents per quarter even for software or firmware. So, churn, churn, churn, and come up with stupid ideas to keep the execs happy.
Been there, done that (Score:2)
Tom Swift did it all around 1912. http://tomswiftaeroship.blogsp... [blogspot.com]
All it takes... (Score:4, Funny)
...is one kid with a BB gun or a slingshot, and BAM your delivery is pwn3d. Thank God for Amazon lockers and UPS store deliveries.
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...is one kid with a BB gun or a slingshot, and BAM your delivery is pwn3d. Thank God for Amazon lockers and UPS store deliveries.
It also takes one unarmed kid (or armed kid) a few seconds of noticing your package on your doorstep to steal your package. If kids are going to be causing crimes, the easiest part is after the package is delivered- yet, in most cases that doesn't seem to be a problem.
Human crime has actually not been a big problem to Amazon deliveries most places and probably will continue not to be... ... there are many holes in this idea, but kids shooting balloons probably isn't one of the more probable ones to cause a
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Or a gust of wind and a tree, or some power lines....
How The Fuck (Score:2)
Runs off to file patent for wheels.
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If there was not t-shirt involved then why bother?
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Can someone get a patent on something invented over a hundred years ago? This is ridiculous.
Runs off to file patent for wheels.
The patent isn't on a hot air balloon, it's on a drone that can adapt to use balloons AND make deliveries.
Not sure if that deserves a patent, but if it doesn't it's probably more falling under "obvious use" than "prior design". I can't think of any prior use of a convertable delivery drone that inflates balloons on demand when approaching destination.
Shortage of Helium? (Score:2, Insightful)
Hopefully they won't be using helium and then releasing that into the atmosphere since it is becoming rare.
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Hopefully they won't be using helium and then releasing that into the atmosphere since it is becoming rare.
Motivation for space industry; helium is abundent up there.
V1 Buzz Bombs (Score:3)
huh (Score:2)
Silent...but Deadly ?! (SBD) (Score:2)
Depends upon how large the item is that this balloon carries. However, if something goes wrong it could be a real stinker.
What could possibly go wrong? (Score:2)
News flash: China hacks Amazon air squadrons in unprovoked attack on major American cities, millions killed.
Reuben Garrett Lucius Goldberg (Score:2)
Would be proud.