The last time we heard of Zipline, the California company was using parachutes to drop packages from delivery drones to the ground. But the company’s just-announced Platform 2 (P2) system eases the load within the autopilot “droid.”
Here’s a quick overview of how P2 is intended to work…
Workers at one location start by putting cargo inside the droid. It’s basically a streamlined box with a propeller attached to the back. At that location’s docking station, the droid will be mounted on his Zipline’s one fuselage of her P2 Zip eVTOL (electric vertical take-off and landing) drone.
The P2 Zip flies to its destination while staying at least 300 feet (91 m) at all times. Once it reaches the location, it hovers while unloading the droid on a retractable tether.
A downward-facing camera and other on-board sensors allow the droid to see a target’s landing area, such as the front steps of a house. Therefore, it compensates for factors such as crosswinds to ensure that the propellers hit that mark. When the droid lands, the recipient opens the hatch and retrieves the item. The droid then winches back to the drone, which in most cases returns to its starting point.
zip line
Note that the system is limited to packages weighing 8 pounds (3.6 kg) or less, and the drone has a 10 mile (16 km) round trip service radius. But if you fly straight from one loading station to another (where you can recharge your battery pack), you’ll have a range of 24 miles (39 km).
Many corporate clients have already signed up for the service.
Michigan Medicine, MultiCare Health System and Salt Lake City’s Intermountain Health will all be used by existing Zipline customers, the government of Rwanda, to deliver to homes, hotels and medical facilities. Grocery chain Sweetgreen also plans to use the service to deliver groceries to customers’ homes.
A Platform 2 system is demonstrated in the following video.
Zipline Platform 2 End to End
Source: Zipline
