Drones In The Future - Delivering Pizza?

Drones for other than military activities have moved to the personal level as prices have dropped. And this year we have seen them really come down in price to the point where a growing percentage of the population can afford one. We can now expect to see commercial usage of drones to do more delivery activities. While delivering newspapers may not be as practical, what about the idea of delivering a pizza to your home? That kind of an activity would make more sense. And that is exactly what Domino's in the UK has done by testing out the concept with the use of a drone.

Posted on the Domino's UK Facebook you can clearly see pictures of a small drone carrying a pizza. Before we go any further. Domino's here in the US has said this is not associated with them and they have no plans to look into drone pizza delivery right now. But, Domino's in the UK has decided to do an experiment to see how feasible it might be. And from a conceptual idea it does look like it would work with using a drone to deliver a pizza. So, we now have the Dominio's Drone (DD). I like this name better than the one they are using which is the DomniCopter.

Think of a fleet of Dominio's drones which can deliver your pizza to you in quick order. They eliminate the car and driver idea with a drone which is going to speed things up. Now that all the hype has come in, the whole idea makes a lot of sense and one that many other delivery type business should be considering. Given rising fuel costs here in the US, the concept of providing a drone delivery service is a futurist idea.

This is not going to happen anytime soon. There are so many things to be resolved, such as how to monitor the airspace and regulate a sky full of drones. But, the idea of drone delivery has a lot of positives to it. There are things to work out, such as the actual delivery to a residence by the drone since handing off the pizza needs to be done. Ah, all those pesky details. For now, it is a great idea that is a little too early to implement for now.

Personal Drones Coming Will Follow You Home

Drones have moved beyond the use by the military for their purposes to being used for personal use. And they are in the news more and more. And with that, the prices continue to come down. But, these are all controlled by your smartphones. There is going to be a coming wave of personal drones which are on autopilot and controlled by on board computers. The initial ones will have the ability to follow you home basically and record what they are seeing.

All of this is based on the KickStarter project for Universal Air. The company web site for Universal Air is not currently showing a method to purchase their personal Drone Quadcopter. But it does show a lot of support related information. We expect to see the new model to be available this summer and allow you to carry a large payload, such a GoPro camera. When that happens, things will be moving to a new level.

But, that is not the big news. The company is planning to release a version of the R10 which has the ability to track a person overhead and follow them. All by tracking the app on their smartphone which will be used to show location and direction. With built in capabilities coming in the R10 version next year, this will bring a number of great features. And the biggest is the ability to follow a person with the R10 controlling itself, not the user.

With a camera attached, it can follow and record what is going on below all focusing on where the smartphone is with the included app. You can think of the possibilities, such as recording someone skiing down a long mountain slope. And you can probably come up with all kinds of things that you might do with a personal drone which can follow you and record what is going on around you. There are many different sources for the future drones, including CNet News.

Current mapping software being used in the version coming out this summer is going to improve to provide for the ability of the R10 to follow you with the autopilot taking control. A person drone which can follow you is coming.

Insect Drones Are Already Here And Getting Smaller

We have all see drones in the headlines over the past few years, but that has done a lot to intrigue those who want to have their own drones for flying. And with that, the size of the drones has been scaled down to a much smaller size for hobbyists to be able to join in. They have moved to the 4 propeller helicopter style drones moving the prices downward to under $1,000. But that is not enough as they have now moved down to the size of insect drones. And the number of them is increasing.

It is being reported that Harvard has released a paper describing the work they are doing with robotic insects being able to fly. The video below from Harvard demonstrates what they are doing and where the size of robot drones is going. And the tiny little insect drones are very tiny. And with that comes stealth which is far better than the large drones that the military flies today. The value of these tiny insect drones is going to be huge for the military.

But for the rest of us, it is going to be a few more years before they will be available for the hobbyist types to get their hands on. But, there are some larger insects which will be available soon. And that will more than likely be some time this year. The Robot DragonFly from TechJect should be available for purchase this summer. And a more sophisticated BionicOpter from Festo should arrive by the end of the year. These two can be controlled by your smart phone and will be the smallest ones available to the public for now.

If you think that these small size insect drones are not being used, you only have to realize that the military uses technology for years before it is available to the public. There are reports the government has been working on insect drones for years. Now, with the positive demonstration from Harvard, scientists have clearly shown that tiny insect drones are soon going to be available for all to purchase.

With DragonFly drones available this year to purchase and explore, what we will see next year as a much smaller robot drone is anyone's guess. But, it will not be too long before we see these tiny little insect drones for sale.

Robot DragonFly - Your Personal Drone Flies Like A DragonFly

If you are a fan of personal drones and are looking to purchase one this year, the market is growing. And the size of the drones continues to get smaller and as a result, we are seeing prices moving downward as well. Much of what has been out there resembles a plane or helicopter in the design and flight. We are now seeing them move to mimic things in nature and recently has been to have them look and fly like a dragonfly. Having them hover, move forward and back is exactly what is desired in working with a personal drone.

The Robot DragonFly was an Indiegogo project last year and things are coming close as they prepare to begin shipping for the Robot DragonFly. Each model will come with an on board computer for control. You control these with an app on either your Android or iOS smart phone giving you the control in the palm of your hand. They are saying that battery life will vary depending on how you are flying it. If you are just hovering the robot, battery life will be between 8 to 10 minutes. Battery life continues to be the big problem with all mobile technology.

They are building in a hybrid mode which will do a combination of gliding and powering the wings which is reportedly going to give you 25 to 30 minutes of flight time. That is more than enough time to work with your personal DragonFly as you fly it around. Each model has different feature sets and the entry level is not going to have the hover capability, so you will need to look at a more expensive model. And as the models go up in price, so do the features, such as an included camera.

These are small as compared to other drones and the body is about 6 inches long, so it is pretty small. And the DragonFly is light starting at less than an ounce making it very portable and when folded up can clip into your pocket. Most of the weight is in the 250 mAh lithium polymer battery. The US Air Force thought so much of TechJect was planning to develop that they gave them a grant of $1 million to fund the process. And that was last year. They are wrapping up the development and manufacture of multiple versions of the Robot DragonFly this quarter.

The DragaonFly comes from TechJect.com and with the scheduled date some time in July for release, there is going to be growing interest in the very small drone. The initial shipments will be for the basic model with more advanced ones coming in September and October. And with the various products being offered, it is going to meet the needs of many to work with their own personal drone. Those who helped fund the product jumped in at low prices which started at $99 for the base model. We expect to see things a little higher than that when they are made available to the public. And there will be an ultimate model which should be priced at less than $2,000. Watch for the DragonFly in the fall and pick one up.

DragonFly Drone: BionicOpter Controlled By Your Phone

Drones have become of great interest this year and that does not look like it is going to slow down any time soon. That is because they are growing smaller and a drone will be affordable for just about everyone. The ones on the market right now are much smaller than the drone we think of which the military uses. But, if you look at the consumer drone of today, there are even smaller ones making there way to market this year.

The DragonFly Drone, BionicOpter from Festo, is the kind of product which will be showing up for sale and will be one that everyone wants to have. This drone is only 17.3 inches long and has a wing span of just under 25 inches. Pretty impressive based on how well it flies and it weighs about 6 ounces. The video below shows you just what it can do. And best of all, you can control this with your smart phone. If you do not have a smart phone to use for this, there will be a wireless controller available.

With the 4 wings, the BionicOpter drone can easily hover and move about in any direction including backwards with ease. All of the details on this drone are available from the company in a PDF which is located in Germany. All of this is building on the previous flying drone from the company which is called SmartBird which demonstrated they could have realistic flight for a bird. This was shown at TEDGlobal in July 2011.

While there has been no announcements yet about when they might release this drone to the public, it may be that a much smaller model could become available to the public. That would reduce the costs and make this one more affordable. Exactly when that might be is an unknown, but with the successful presentations this month, it is only a matter of time before other companies jump in with cheaper models and attempt to grab the market. We would assume that some form of the BionicOpter drone will be coming to market this year.

Drone Can Swoop And Grab Items In Flight

Drones have been a very hot topic in the news and many see it as a privacy concern. But, given the ability for just about anyone to have their own drone, we have more concerns with private citizens having their own drones. What we have been hearing about is people exploring what they can do and somethings they get into problems by flying them where they should not. But, they have the potential for being used for criminal activities. And recent news is showing ways they could be used for such activities.

We should all have concerns about drones for private use. And now there is more information coming out as the things which drones are capable of increases. While a drone can be used for surveillance, the potential for much more is showing up all the time. The most recent is a report from the University of Pennsylvania and their Grasp program. They have added a claw to the bottom of a drone and shown how it can swoop and grab an item in flight. This has been patterned after what an eagle does when they swoop in to grab a fish. Check out the video below.

While this seems like a break through, there is so much more to it. Some are claiming that drones could swoop in a grab someone off the street which is a pretty scary thing to think about. But, what if you look at this for those who commit crimes. Since a drone is relatively quiet and they are making them quieter all the time, you may not hear one until it is too late. And the ability now for a drone to pick something up is going to create problems for the average citizen.

If you were to put your smart phone or tablet on a table outside in your own backyard and step away, a drone could come in and take your mobile device before you knew what happened. That is what we are going to have to be concerned about. Technology in the wrong hands creates problems for us and will continue to do so. The only alternative for us is to create devices which can jam the signals of a drone and block them from being navigated near us. That may be one of the few options to protect ourselves from a small drone.