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Delivering goods for miles at a time can be tiring, even for drones. Luckily, Amazon has designed special birdhouses for its drone to rest in.
Amazon’s latest patent describes these birdhouses as docking stations, and like rest stops for human travelers, the docking stations allow delivery drones to recharge or shelter during inclement weather. Docking stations are designed to rest on light poles, cell phone towers, and similar structures where you’d see a traditional birdhouse.
Drones will know the whereabouts of any nearby docking stations, so if a situation such as inclement weather crops up, a drone can automatically change flight paths and land at the nearest available docking station. When docked, the drone can recharge, upload or download information, or even drop off packages for other drones.
In addition, the patent details powering drones via liquid or gas fuels. Docking stations could contain tanks of fuel for drones to refuel from.
Along with Amazon’s outlandish plans to customize drones for each delivery and have different sizes for various payload capacities, the idea of a drone recharging on a light pole seems very science-fiction-esque. I can already imagine stories of thieves climbing up to these birdhouses to steal a drone’s contents, but I’m sure Amazon has a patent for preventing that.
Via: The Next Web Source: USPTO
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