SORA RAKU DELIVERY DRONE BLOWS AMAZON AWAY
A delivery flight tasked from 40km away!. The drone was summoned by the Major of Chiba City, Toshihito Kumagai, via a cell phone app. The Sora Raku drone from Japanese company Rakuten flew from their Crimson House headquarters to Inage Kahin Park Pool.
This delivery has put Amazon’s recent efforts into the spotlight again. Perhaps to distract, they have pulled out a set of ridiculous patents. Blimps and bow and arrows for instance. Filing a Patent is much easier than doing the work.
AMAZON PATENTS DRONE PROTECTION SYSTEM
Amazon’s latest patent, called ‘Countermeasure for Threats to an Uncrewed Autonomous Vehicle’, was filed on November 17, 2014 and was published last week. If a drone is stuck with a rock, gun or even an arrow, the system will deploy ‘a protective device such as an airbag, foam, parachute, bumper and so forth’.
TEN RECENT DRONE INVENTIONS – VIDEO
A compilation of short clips of ten unusual drone inventions to be found on YouTube.
DRONE DELIVERY STARTUP FLIRTEY RAISES $16 M
Drone delivery startup Flirtey has raised $16 million in Series A funding to bring its high-flying service to new customers, companies and possibly countries. Earlier, the startup raised $120,000 in seed funding and participated in the Y Combinator accelerator.
Flirtey was also the first company to attain FAA approvals to conduct a drone delivery in the US in 2015. That fact helped it land one of its drones in the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum, a milestone that CEO Matthew Sweeny calls a “kittyhawk” moment for the startup.
AMAZON PATENT DETAILS FOLDING-WING DRONE DESIGN
Mega-retailer Amazon continues to spread it corporate wings into the drone space, filing a patent for a new type of hybrid folding-wing design.
The patent was filed in 2014 and published on Dec. 24. The application describes a drone design in which the aircraft “transitions in-flight between vertical flight configuration and horizontal flight configuration by changing an orientation of the UAV by approximately ninety degrees.”
NEWS: DRONE DELIVERY SERVICE DEVELOPS FOR COMMERCIAL INDUSTRIES
Technology is developing. More and more devices and machines are becoming “smart.” With connection to the internet, they connect to each other and present endless opportunities.
Robot delivery has climbed high on the tech development agenda.
Catching the attention of headlines and Super Bowl fans, drone delivery services are swiftly approaching the commercial market. Amazon has taken the lead in this development race and gave a 10-second sneak peek teaser of “Prime Air.”
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