FAA Clears Alphabet’s Wing for Home Drone Deliveries in Virginia

https://gizmodo.com/faa-clears-alphabets-wing-for-home-drone-deliveries-in-1834241446

Alphabet’s Project Wing has gained approval from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to conduct commercial drone flights in Virginia.

The company, sometimes simply called Wing, has been conducting trials in the state since 2016, but the new FAA authorization will allow it to finally sell things like food or medicine ordered by consumers through the Wing app.

Wing received approval for commercial drone deliveries in Australia in a “world-first” earlier this month. The company has partnered with local fast food restaurants, cafes, and drugs stores to deliver goods to roughly 100 homes in the suburbs surrounding Australia’s capital city of Canberra. Wing says that they’ve conducted over 70,000 test flights and completed more than 3,000 home deliveries in Australia to date.

After day’s FAA Air Carrier Certification, Wing will be able to do the same thing in the U.S., though it’s not immediately clear which will be the company’s first delivery partners. Previous tests by Wing in Virginia included sending Chipotle burritos to students at Virginia Tech in a controlled environment, but the company will be reaching out to businesses in the Blacksburg and Christiansburg areas to show off the technology and “gather feedback,” according to the FAA in a statement emailed to Gizmodo. Wing says it hopes to start deliveries “later this year.”

Wing published a statement on Medium this morning explaining the potential benefits of drone delivery:

For communities across the country, this presents new opportunities. Goods like medicine or food can now be delivered faster by drone, giving families, shift workers, and other busy consumers more time to do the things that matter. Air delivery also provides greater autonomy to those who need assistance with mobility. Also, our all-electric drones will reduce traffic on our roads and pollution and carbon emissions in our skies.

Wing’s drones have evolved over the years, and the company boasts that they’re completely electric and zero emissions. Their current model of uncrewed aircraft takes off before it’s fitted with a delivery package, as you can see in the GIF below from Australia.

Sandwiches and coffee are prepared for delivery via Wing’s drones in Australia
GIF: Wing/YouTube

The biggest problem that still needs to be worked out is the noise generated by the aircraft. The drones can be quite loud as they buzz overhead in residential areas. The current models can fly as high as 400 feet and are guided by machine learning algorithms, according to the company. They have a top speed of 75 miles per hour.

Wing did not immediately respond to Gizmodo’s requests for comment.

Wing isn’t the only company that’s working on drone delivery, but it’s the first to actually get its commercial business off the ground. Amazon promised back in December of 2013 that drone deliveries were just five years away. It turns out that the tech giant was right, but they weren’t the company that would be doing it successfully. That being said, nationwide delivery via drone remains firmly in the future.

“This is an important step forward for the safe testing and integration of drones into our economy,” U.S. Secretary of Transportation Elaine L. Chao said in a statement emailed to Gizmodo. “Safety continues to be our Number One priority as this technology continues to develop and realize its full potential.”

via Gizmodo https://gizmodo.com

April 23, 2019 at 12:09PM

Robotic Arms Designed For Household Chores

https://geekologie.com/2019/04/robotic-arms-designed-for-household-chor.php

robot-chore-arms.jpg
This is a video demonstration of Blue, a pair of robotic arms developed by researchers at UC Berkeley that were designed for household chores. MAKE MY BED AND A SANDWICH. A list of its potential applications:

According to the researchers, a "partial set of tasks to consider (in the robot design) includes: unloading a dishwasher, stocking a refrigerator, floor decluttering, opening doors, opening microwave ovens, sorting packages, physical stroke rehabilitation, folding laundry, cleaning windows, bed making, and bathroom cleaning. We demonstrate the robot in kitchen cleaning, table decluttering, telepresence, and machine tending."

In the video it takes thirty seconds to fold a single towel, and that’s sped up 5X. So it took two and a half minutes to fold that towel. That’s probably not gonna get you a job restocking at Old Navy. Or a job in my household. I run a tight ship around here. "Your sofa is on fire." That’s cool, that’s how I wanted it.
Keep going for the video.

Thanks to hairless, who informed me he would arm wrestle those arms right out of their sockets, and I believe him.

via Geekologie – Gadgets, Gizmos, and Awesome https://geekologie.com/

April 23, 2019 at 11:05AM