Zipline: Drone+Droid.
Logistics and drone delivery company Zipline provides drone delivery together with an equally autonomous payload droid that – once lowered to client destinations by a winch – can guide itself to an area for unloading as small as a patio table or steps up to a house.
To deliver a package, a drone — or “zip,” as the company calls it — hovers at about 100 meters above ground and lowers a rope, at the end of which is a container (“droid”) about the size of a cat carrier. Made from lightweight foam with a plastic shell, the droid uses fans to hold steady as well as cameras and other sensors to avoid obstacles as it descends.
Once it touches down on a lawn, walkway or porch, a hatch in the bottom opens to deposit the cargo, a process that Zipline co-founder and Chief Technology Officer Keenan Wyrobek says is “whisper quiet.”
The drone then pulls the droid back to its belly and returns to the restaurant, warehouse or store, where it re-charges at a dock installed on the wall or roof.
When the next order comes in — via app software provided by Zipline — the drone lowers its droid through a portal built into a wall, where workers can open its lid, load it and send it on its way again.
Zipline’s drone and droid together weigh about 23 kilograms and carry a payload of 3 to 5 kilograms at speeds of up to 110km/h on a roughly one-kilowatt-hour battery.
In Zipline’s vision, this zip-droid-and-portal combo will be serving millions of US households within a couple of years. With its new service, Zipline is going after one of the least efficient corners of last-mile logistics: the so-called instant delivery of groceries, meals and other daily goods, where cars often drive both to pick up and drop off small parcels one at a time.
But before Zipline can reach its goal of serving customers nationwide, drone rules will have to catch up — a process that has so far proved hard to complete. There are questions about noise, privacy and safety.
In 2020 Zipline launched its first US pilot in North Carolina; it has since added services in Utah and in Arkansas, where it’s currently piloting home delivery for Walmart.