Drone courier "Mail of Russia" worth 1.2 million rubles crashed during his first flight
Source: RIA Novosti
Mail delivery by drones is a rather strong technological trend of the 21st century. Google, Amazon, Airbus and other companies are developing their own technology for automated air couriers. In Russia, they are also looking at new trends in this area, and are trying to keep up with the times.
Today, in Ulan-Ude, the demonstration of the first Russian delivery of an unmanned aerial vehicle was to take place. It was planned to send the cargo from one of the districts of the city to the village of Tarbagatai. The significance of the event can be judged by the list of participants, including the head of Buryatia Alexei Tsydenov and the general director of the Post of Russia Nikolay Podguzov.
According to the head of Russian Post, the use of drones in the work of a company is very important: . Therefore, mail delivery using drones is relevant for us. I am very pleased that we are launching this project here today, which should be successful. ”
During his own short speech, the head of Buryatia said that it was planned to launch its own production of UAVs in the republic. By the way, the drone, which was supposed to deliver the package, was made in Russia. The mass of the delivered cargo is 2 kg, the speed of the drone with the load is 70 km / h.
Unfortunately, things did not go as planned. Dron took off without problems, but after a few minutes he ran into the house and fell, turning into a pile of debris. Multikopter is not recoverable, it is reported that the parcel has not suffered. According to the organizers, the drone lost control due to the multiple signals of the wireless access points to the Internet, installed in the apartments of the residents of the house that the copter collided with. Signals and drove the copter out of the way. Device developers are planning to improve, and the launch - repeat after system modification.
A few hours after the accident, the press service of the drone manufacturer published the following statement: “During a test launch of an unmanned aerial vehicle in the Republic of Buryatia, an abnormal disconnection of electronic equipment occurred. The causes of the failure will be established after the decoding of the telemetry data. The test launch of the UAV is transferred. A new date will be announced later. ”
Immediately after the incident, “Russian Post” stated that the company participated in the event only as a guest. And the organizer and manufacturer of the device was the company Rudron / Forwarder 3M.
“The manufacturer of an unmanned aerial vehicle - the company“ Rudron / Forwarder 3M ”- organized testing, for which“ Russian Post ”was invited as one of the guests. We offered to test the delivery of the item to the post office. We just put a postal box in it - the manufacturer did the rest, ”said Sergey Kolyada, a representative of the Post of Russia.
Of all the foreign companies, Amazon approached the issue of cargo delivery with drones most seriously. She owns a number of patents for “air couriers”, and not only for her own design copters, but also for the drones tower. The patent describes a multi-level building with entrances for people, entry and exit for cars, multiple entrances for departure and return of drones. As conceived by the authors of the idea, towers should be installed in the largest settlements, where it is difficult to deliver goods online. First of all, it is about New York, London, Tokyo.
The company's patent application states the following: “A multi-level center was created to ensure the take-off and landing of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), probably within the city, including densely populated regions.”
Due to the complexities of a technical and legal nature (flying of drones is prohibited in densely populated regions), the package will not be able to deliver the package massively soon. But everything goes to the fact that, sooner or later, the “air couriers” work will still begin.