The global shipping giant UPS tested its delivery drones successfully just a few days ago. However, the subsequent test of the Horsefly drone could not be very successful.
In the initial test just a day prior, the octocopter, docked at the roof of a custom-built truck, delivered a package to a home and returned to the van which had by then moved forward to a different location. Robotic arms at the truck then pulled the drone back to the roof where it would recharge. This initial test had gone smooth. The debut on the next day, however, did not.
In the next demonstration, as soon as the drone was launched from the roof, it faced signal interference. The launch stopped immediately, and the drone fell on the top of the truck while it attempted to land. The closing top of the vehicle nearly smashed the drone to bits. There is no say from the company on what kind of signal interference it was, but the possibilities include broadcast reporting cameras or RF frequency.
The delivery drones by Amazon were so much hyped that the public has failed to notice attempts by other companies. UPS has been making efforts to make drone delivery successful for a long time now. The company had previously partnered with the United States military experimental tech division DARPA and even humanitarian groups for disposable drone deliveries. Now, the company has partnered with Workhorse group to make its drone delivery project successful, and it looks quite close to its goal.
The glitch in the demonstration has set the product launch back a little. The event portrayed that the mechanism of deliveries through drones needs more efforts before it can be established as a routine work. The Workhorse CEO, Steve Burns, mentioned about the accident,
“We’ve never seen it before.”
Here is a video of the first successful demonstration of the Horsefly octocopter:
We certainly do hope that such a glitch does not become a problem again, but we are expecting plenty of failures before drone delivery becomes a norm.
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