India is not the place to be if you are a drone enthusiast. Yes, there are people who have a license for flying a drone in the country but it is
often very difficult to obtain one as the rules are pretty strict here. While the scenario appears to be changing slowly as more and more people
are now interested in flying one, Amazon appears to be planning something really amazing. Apparently, Amazon Technologies has now filed a patent
application in India, which hints that Amazon might be planning to bring the Amazon Prime Air to the country.
According to the new reports which we have, the company has now filed a new patent here which might ensure that these drones dubbed as Automated
aerial vehicles (AAVs) have a safe flying experience and do not hit humans or animals while delivering your Prime packages. Well, if you are not
aware of Amazon Prime Air is, it is a service to deliver packages that weigh less than five pounds using small drones. If this is implemented,
then we are looking at a delivery time of about 30 minutes or less.
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This new patent application which is for propeller safety in AAVs describes a new system which will automatically detect a contact or an imminent
contact between a propeller of the AAV and an object such a human or an animal. If it encounters a contact, then a safety profile is executed
which can quickly stop the rotation of the propellers. To better understand this, consider the following example.
If the AAV is configured to deliver your package in the backyard of your home, and while landing, if it encounters some kind of an object in the
way like your pet animal (highly possible) or any object in the way, it will quickly respond and take necessary action to prevent the object from
getting harmed. It could either stop the propellers, move away from the object and land somewhere else, emit an audible tone, etc.
Another interesting detail which the patent highlights are where the AAV will communicate with other AAVs in the area to provide or receive
information. This could be anything like weather information, landing conditions, traffic, objects or other safety profiles. All this info can be
then used by the AAV to plan an alternate route or different time of delivery, etc. It looks like the company is already doing trials in the U.K
to gather data to improve the safety and reliability of these systems.
And according to the reports, the company already got an okay from the U.S Patent and Trademark office for a shipping label to enable the
delivery of the packages by aerial vehicles. However, as of now, we don’t have any as to how it will work out here in India. But sooner or later
if you see some drone flying around with a package, then don’t worry, it is for a better future of package delivery service.