Amazon has submitted a patent for giant bee hive like towers filled with robots drones.
Inside these “hive” towers located in urban environments, drones can dock, charge, and be restocked. Once restocked, the drones will fly out again to deliver items directly to people’s doorsteps.
Amazon says:
"Consumers are becoming accustomed to expedited on demand delivery. Fulfillment centers located far away from densely populated urban areas will not be able to keep up with the growing demand for efficiency."
Amazon describes a tower which could blend into an urban landscape, where drones could dock from multiple ports located on its exterior. Like its current fulfillment centers, the drone tower includes plans for robots which help human workers to fill orders and ferry items around the building. The robots will also be carrying drones needing restocking, recharging, or maintenance. The landing platforms lock with doors. The doors authenticate each drone via a wireless communication system when docking.
Amazon has been working on its drone project for years, but it wasn’t until last December the company showed off footage of its first successful delivery completed entirely by a drone in the Cambridge area of England. At a March conference, Amazon completed its first public demonstration of a Prime Air drone delivery in the U.S.
In the past year Amazon has shared a string of outlandish patent ideas for 'how the company could revolutionize shipping goods to customers using drones'. The ideas include a floating warehouse parked 45,000 feet in the air where its drones dock and collect packages to deliver to people, as well as a pocket-sized voice-controlled drone small enough to perch on someone’s shoulder.
Pictures of the concept are found below:
Below are concept photos of "The Hive" which was designed by Hadeel Ayed Mohammad, 25, Yifeng Zhao, 24, and Chengda Zhu, 24, as part of their university course at the University of Pennsylvania:
and here watch a video of Amazon Prime Air's first successful drone delivery: