Drone Delivery Becomes a Reality in Remote Pacific Islands | Hacker News Reader

Drone Delivery Becomes a Reality in Remote Pacific Islands

spectrum.ieee.org

74 pointssohkamyung31 comments

Why are they showing only quadcopter drones on images? AFAIK for long distance flights you need winged drones, which are much more efficient... You should of course adapt them so they can take off & land vertically, like Google's Project Wing.

Because fixed wings require either landing/takeoff strips, or complex systems to transition between two modes of flight. Quadcopters, with their only four moving parts, are a simpler option. If the capacity/range is there, why not go with the easiest to maintain? It's not like they are paying for fuel.

What about speed? It's pretty important to keep it moving, otherwise you limit the number of deliveries you can do.

> Because fixed wings require either landing/takeoff strips, or complex systems to transition between two modes of flight

For small planes you don't need a full strip. You can use launch accelerator ramps and capture harnesses for a very small footprint, ala Zipline. https://www.cnet.com/pictures/take-a-look-at-ziplines-new-dr...

Such systems require someone trained at the receiving end. A quad can land and take off without much, if any, human interaction needed. That can matter if you perhaps want to drop something at a location where there might not even be any people waiting to receive it. (In SAR scenarios helos often drop supplies in fields even though those who need them are hours away.) Needing any physical landing/takeoff equipment at the destination also means that you can only deliver to prepared routes. So you couldn't do rapid response to remote locations. Physical equipment can also be damaged in disasters(hurricanes) after which air transport is most needed.

Zipline's landing system is totally automated, so I don't think it needs anyone specially trained, but it does need equipment to land. They don't land at the receiving end, though, they drop the package via parachute, with a claimed accuracy of within two parking spaces. So, the origin point (where the packages come from) is fixed, by they can do arbitrary destinations so the routes aren't fixed.

If you read the article, one of the proposed solutions is a craft that is basically the drone version of a V-22 Osprey. Tilt rotors.

Probably not as efficient in terms of battery Wh consumed per km of flight (with a given payload) compared to the Zipline drones, which are dedicated-purpose fixed wing aircraft. But considerably more efficient for cross-country flight than a pure VTOL design drone.

The article specifically mentions that they are getting bids from WingCopter (which flips between VTOL and fixed) and includes a link to their brochure:

http://www.wingcopter.com/brochures/WINGCOPTER%20178%20GEO.p...

http://www.flyzipline.com/ is already doing this in Africa (specifically Rwanda and Tanzania), seems like a good contender.

Vayu too, though they're less publicized about: https://www.vayu.us

Nice. The VTOL is a cute feature, though it might account for its lower range.

The Vayu craft strongly resembles the prototype passenger-carrying tilt-rotor-wing craft Airbus is test flying at the Pendleton, OR test range:

http://nwnewsnetwork.org/post/robo-air-taxi-makes-first-flig...

Other than having two wings I don’t really see the similarities between Vayu and Vahana. BTW, a better source of info on Vahana is from the project itself: http://vahana.aero. Disclaimer: I work on the project.

The Volans-i's 200 mph, 500 mile range drones mentioned here a week back might be good https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17165365

And Zipline needs to upgrade to https!

I thought it a notable omission.

I was expecting drone boats, which I imagine might take larger loads farther.

> Today, shipments are flown from the three major islands (which have cities and airports and such) to small rural islands in 9-seater planes. When a plane rolls to a stop on the grass airstrip, it’s met by someone from the local health clinic—but that’s assuming that one of the few trucks on the island is available and in working order.

Why do small parcels need to be moved by big trucks? Why not motorcycles? Cheaper and easier to operate and maintain, and off-road models can be used where trucks can't. Motorcycles are ubiquitous on the islands and is an appropriate technology. Drones are the exact opposite.

They already have the planes, motorcycles can be sourced in a matter of weeks. Whereas this will take a fortune and years to develop, and it's not even certain it will work before they run out of money.

I've been there and I know how Vanuatu works. This is clearly some elected retard in Vila playing games with the national budget as every other one has done since 1980.

As I understand the article, drones replace people hiking over mountains. It seems plausible that these hiking trails can't be safely navigated on bikes.

But can be navigated by trucks?

No the trucks bring the packages to the central hospital, not to the secluded villages.

So then what does using trucks instead of motorcycles have to do with the passes being non-navigable by bikes?

It's plausible, but still, trails navigable by wheeled vehicles are appropriate technology and has been since the invention of the wheel. And off-road bikes place very little demand on those trails.

It's bad enough that they are reliant on western pilots and technicians to keep the planes in the air, the last thing they need is add western drone operators and techs to the mix. If they hate independence so much maybe they shouldn't have declared it in the first place. Also it won't exactly help their massive unemployment.

> Why do small parcels need to be moved by big trucks? Why not motorcycles?

Good question (maybe a package of vaccines for a full island isn't a "small parcel" anymore?), but that's not the part the initial drone proposals are supposed to replace.

>>When the delivery drones fly behind a mountain, the operators will have to send signals either via a relay aircraft or a satellite.

Wouldn't it be easier to deploy a high-altitude balloon tethered to the ground, with an antenna? Should be much much lower operating cost than relay aircraft and better latency than satellite relay?

> The conditions in Vanuatu make vaccine distribution a tough challenge. Today, shipments are flown from the three major islands (which have cities and airports and such) to small rural islands in 9-seater planes. When a plane rolls to a stop on the grass airstrip, it’s met by someone from the local health clinic—but that’s assuming that one of the few trucks on the island is available and in working order.

The health worker picks up the vaccines, which are packed in ice, and hurries back to the clinic to stash the precious vials in a refrigerator—but that’s assuming the fridge and the clinic’s solar power system are working. Any breakdown is a serious problem, because spare parts can take weeks to arrive. And the whole operation is very expensive.

It sounds like they're going for JIT delivery, deliver the vials to the remote hospitals as they're using them - instead of transporting a supply that the remote hospital would store. This would obviate remote refrigeration, removing numerous situations where the supplies could go bad. They could get an email from the remote hospital and send a drone with a few insulated vials right away.

If the drone payload is big enough, they could replace the airplane and trucks too, saving a lot on fuel and maintenance costs.

The drones would have to be pretty tough to do JIT delivery during cyclone season. Maybe it can be done when the weather is good, provided that it is beneficial to do so.

I wonder if there's another way to "protect" them during bad weather... Maybe by turning drones into zeppelins? So they couldn't "crash" but would merely get "blown away", and hence wouldn't need motors for levitation, but only for horizontal movement.

PR stunt for delivery-by-drone companies: deliver symbolic vaccines to Nome, Alaska, and get video of the competing Iditarod teams along the way. Be sure to keep both batteries & vaccines warm.

I wonder how regularly these vaccines are needed, or what is the frequency of demand for them? Maybe the drones will deliver other medical supplies as well?

There's a joke to be made here about the cargo cults, but I'm having trouble coming up with anything sufficiently witty.

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