Did you know Amazon is trying its best to test drones for the purpose of making deliveries? Well, Amazon is not the only company which is trying to get things moving. GeoPost, a speedy delivery arm of La Poste – a French mail service, has recently released information regarding drone testing that took place at Centre d’Etudes et d’Essais pour Modèles Autonomes (CEEMA) in September 2014.
GeoPost teamed up with Atechsys as part of the GeoDrone project that is already going on at the company. The collaboration resulted in the development of an electric drone for delivery that is able to make deliveries of packages with measurements of 16 x 12 x 8 inches, weighing around 4 kg in a 20 km radius and can do this autonomously. The project aims at evaluating the use of drones to grant access to areas that are isolated such as islands, mountains and rural areas while also allowing to provide a means of reaction to any emergency situations that may arise.
The test saw the drone use being demonstrated in conditions that were the same as real world. The drone executed automated take-off, flight span, landing and then returned to base. GeoPost has so far not released any information when it comes to the prototype specifications except that it weighs 3.7kg and sports 6 rotors. Furthermore, the drone successfully delivered a 2kg parcel to a distance of 1,200 meters at the CEEMA site located in South of France.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jX6YCbn2xcM