The Amazon Conundrum

Amazon made headlines when it publicized its intent to use drones for package delivery, but the FAA hasn’t warmed to the idea. Amazon is threatening to go overseas (rumour has it, maybe to India) if the FAA denies permits to fly its ninth-generation, 50 mph drones transferring payloads from their automated warehouse to consumer addresses. The reason things are stalled? The FAA is still mulling regulations applying to drone-borne deliveries, among other issues.

1. Dominos and Pizza Hut

The US wasn’t the first nation to launch a space probe (Sputnik circa 1957) and the Russians already beat us to the punch on the pizza delivery scene when the town of Syktyvkar became home to that nation’s first drone-powered pizza delivery system. For 500 rubles ($15 USD), townspeople enjoy multi-topping pies dropped from the sky. If Dominos and Pizza Hut don’t get in on the action, other domestic pizza chains surely will.

2. Trimble Navigation

They’ve already filed paperwork with the FAA for licenses to fly drones over construction sites requiring an extra measure of inspection as accurate information is collected for contour maps produced by Trimble. Already the patent holders of several GPS navigation products and applications, Trimble wants FAA approval to gather high-quality images that also locate terrain flaws impossible to spot from the ground.

3. San Diego Gas & Electric

Sempra Energy, owners of San Diego Gas & Electric, have received permission to conduct drone tests, but final approvals have yet to be given by the FAA. As the first utility in the nation to be sanctioned to test unmanned drones, this model is sure to be adopted by other utility companies eager to keep a close eye on remote transmission stations that tie up manpower, time and money.

4. Yamaha Motors

The Yamaha brand is familiar, so it’s no surprise the international company is taking the high road—literally—by jumping into the world of high-elevation agricultural scanning. Their aim is specific: direct crop dusters so accurately, applications of pesticides and other agents are delivered efficiently and with little waste. The company’s RMAX remote-controlled copter is already being employed to do the job in Australia and Japan.

5. VDOS Global

It’s anybody’s guess what might have been different had the Aeryon SkyRanger drone been licensed and operational when the Gulf of Mexico oil spill made news, but if VDOS Global meets its goals—and if the FAA grants licensing—monitoring and surveilling future catastrophes could be vastly improved. The VDOS drone collects data in hostile environments, like oil rigs where gas flares (a normal result of drilling) can get out of control. Drilling companies eager to keep close tabs on platform operations want drone assistance badly.

6. BP, Concoco

Phillips and other high profile firms with mega brand recognition are using small, hand-launched drones to monitor remote areas for damaged roads, malfunctioning equipment and leaks, but these companies have loftier aims for drones: Drilling in the Arctic could locate fossil fuels at depths too remote to be detected by other exploratory equipment. Conglomerates like BP and ConocoPhillips aim to fly specially-engineered drones into international waters to seek fresh supplies of fossil fuels.

7. ReMax, Berkshire Hathaway and Century 21

Real estate broker Chris Albright starts every day the same way: he launches his drone and surveys properties for clients. From his base, potential buyers can instruct Albright to swoop neighborhoods to verify the existence of parks, schools or ball fields described on a property profiles to make sure they’re not empty lots or abandoned warehouses. This has some believing that FAA approval of drones for real estate firms has the potential to help rebound residential property sales that have been flagging since 2008.

8. NAI Optimum and other construction firms

Surveillance of an NAI Optimum construction site is no longer labor intensive or costly thanks to the construction company’s use of drones. Whether monitoring the delivery of materials or supplies, keeping tabs on nocturnal security measures to lessen theft and destruction or using real-time technology to observe the installation of an expensive HVAC rooftop installation, NAI Optimum even keeps tabs on interstate traffic so projects stay on deadline.

The Federal Aviation Administration’s rules on civilian use are currently on hold by a federal court, and in the interim, companies are scrambling to take advantage of using drones to deliver product.

Shipping by drone: Not a new idea

Sending packages through the air isn’t a novel strategy; it can be traced back to supply planes making airdrops of food and supplies to troops in WWII. But companies throughout the world have discovered that unless it’s a large package like a television or a computer, drones are capable of handling most product delivery.

Amazon’s Jeff Bezos estimated that using drones to deliver small items could handle 86 percent of Amazon’s shipping.

 Although Amazon has received the most press about their possible use of drones, the practice has already been going on in other countries. In southern China, a company called SF Express began using drones early in 2013; DHL, Europe’s largest parcel delivery service, has been flight-testing drones since 2013; and Domino’s Pizza in the UK is also testing drones for pizza delivery. But there are some challenges to using drones outside of the battlefield.

Government regulation may clip drone movement’s wings

In 2011, Raphael Pirker used a small drone with a foam wing weighing less than five pounds to shoot a promotional video over the University of Virginia. He flew under bridges, near statues and over pedestrians; this drew the attention of the FAA, which considered his conduct reckless and fined him $10,000. Pirker challenged the fine in federal court, saying that the agency was holding him to the same standards as airline pilots; the FAA responded by saying the agency has jurisdiction over anything flying in American airspace, whether manned or unmanned.

The judge disagreed and ruled against the agency, saying it had no rules in place for dealing with small unmanned aircraft when they fined Pirker. In his decision, he wrote that if he accepted the FAA’s argument, “a flight in the air of a paper aircraft, or a toy balsa wood glider, could subject the operator to” FAA procedures and fines. The FAA filed an appeal, leaving drone regulation in legal limbo.

What companies are doing while the FAA ruling is under appeal

Drones can pinpoint security risks, check for thermal signatures in flaming buildings, and now deliver your prescriptions to your door—although not quite to your hand just yet. While the FAA has been trying to regulate drone flights, many uses have already been found for them – and drone deliver is the latest trend.

Las Vegas’ Marquee Dayclub will provide bottle service by drone to customers who spend at least $20,000 on liquor. Amazon is implementing its own drone program known as Prime Air to get packages to customers in 30 minutes or less – but they are waiting for the regulations before proceeding too far. Currently the FAA projects their new regulations to be published in 2015.

But other companies are getting started as well. QuiQui (pronounced “Quicky”), a small startup in San Francisco, is planning to use drones to make pharmacy deliveries at a charge of $1.00 per delivery. The company chose pharmacy items because they are usually very small and easy to transport. “We’ve been working on the technology and execution for about 2 years in hopes that the FAA would come up with commercial drone guidelines,” says Qui-Qui on their website. “We didn’t expect the FAA to lose their lawsuit.”

Other inventors are looking to supply drones; a partnership between the University of Cincinnati and Amp Electric Vehicles has developed the HorseFly, which has eight rotors instead of four – making it not only better for carrying more items, but safer to fly in case one rotor goes out.

The future of commercial drone delivery service rests on the FAA: although they have established some test sites, businesses will likely not get clarity on the legality of commercial drone use until 2015 when the new rules come out. We may have to wait until then see drones moving freely throughout the skies.

The Early Assembly Line Concept

Prior to the Industrial Revolution, manufactured goods were usually made by hand with individual workers taking expertise in one portion of a product. Each expert would create his own part of the item with simple tools. After each component was crafted they would be brought together to complete the final product.

As early as the 12th century, workers in the Venetian Arsenal produced ships by moving them down a canal where they were fitted with new parts at each stop. During its most successful time, the Venetian Arsenal could complete one ship each day.

Eli Whitney and Interchangeable Parts

With the start of the Industrial Revolution, machines began to perform work that once required human hands. With the use of machines, factories sprang up to replace small craft shops. This change was made possible by the concept of interchangeable parts, an innovation designed by Eli Whitney.

The concept of interchangeable parts first took ground in the firearms industry when French gunsmith Honoré LeBlanc promoted the idea of using standardized gun parts. Before this, firearms were made individually by hand, thus each weapon was unique and could not be easily fixed if broken. Fellow gunsmiths realized the effect LeBlanc’s idea could have on their custom creations and the concept failed to catch on. Another European craftsman had similar ideas. Naval engineer Samuel Bentham, from England, used uniform parts in the production of wooden pulleys for ships.

It wasn’t until Eli Whitney introduced the idea in the United States that the practice took off. He was able to use a large unskilled work force and standardized equipment to produce large numbers of identical gun parts at a low cost, within a short amount of time. It also made repair and parts replacement more suitable.

Ransom Olds

Ransom Olds created and patented the assembly line in 1901. Switching to this process allowed his car manufacturing company to increase output by 500 percent in one year. The Curved Dash model was able to be produced at an exceptionally high rate of 20 units per day.

The Oldsmobile brand then had the ability to create a vehicle with a low price, simple assembly and stylish features. Their car was the first to be produced in large quantities. Olds’ assembly line method was the first to be used in the automotive industry and served as the model for which Henry Ford created his own.

Henry Ford

Henry Ford improved upon the assembly line concept by using the moving platforms of a conveyor system. In this system the chassis of the vehicle was towed by a rope that moved it from station to station in order to allow workers to assemble each part.

Using this method, the Model T could be produced every ninety minutes, or totaling nearly two million units in one of their best years. Often credited as the father of the assembly line, he would be more appropriately referred to as the father of automotive mass production.

Mass Production and the Robotic Age

Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, engineers around the world experimented with robotics as a means of industrial development. General Motors installed its own robotic arm to assist in the assembly line in 1961. In 1969, Stanford engineer Victor Scheinman created the Stanford Arm, a 6-axis robot that could move and assemble parts in a continuous repeated pattern. This invention expanded robot use in ways that continue to be applied in modern assembly. At Philips Electronics factory in the Netherlands, production is completed by a number of robot arms assigned to specific tasks.

Today robotics are reaching a completely new level of sophistication. Companies like Rethink Robotics are striving to develop adaptive manufacturing robots that can work next to humans; these robots would help to improve efficiency and increase productivity. Rethink Robotics especially is working on making their robots low-cost and user-friendly. Rethink Robotics’ Baxter robot, originally launched in 2012, is being upgraded all the time.

Unbounded Robotics recently launched a robot called UBR-1, with manipulation, intelligence, and mobility for under $50k. It is being offered to universities as a research platform, similar to Baxter, but mobile. The one-armed robot can do human-scale tasks and offers advanced software and state-of-the-art hardware. Unbounded Robotics has been taking orders for UBR-1 and plans to start shipping this summer.

Lest anyone think that robotics are not cost-effective and that they will replace humans in the workplace, it should be said that in fact, robots like Baxter operate at about $3 per hour and that three to five million new jobs will be created this decade due to the creation of Baxter and other co-robots. And not only that, but U.S. efficiency and productivity are three times that of China.

It’s obvious that robotics already have and will certainly continue to have a place in the world of manufacturing in the future, if not in other areas of life. With the increase in technology that we see every year, there are great things to be seen in the field of robotics in the near future.

• Talking Machines: History of machine learning, w. Geoffrey Hinton, Yoshua Bengio, Yann LeCun
• NSF’s 40-year history supporting US robotics research
• Funding high risk proposals at the National Science Foundation: A brief history
• Robots Podcast: History and outlook

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