Back in May Chris posted a news item about Amazon's drone based delivery system patent which got some attention but most people missed a crucial claim in it:

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the unmanned aerial vehicle is further configured to: receive environment information from a second unmanned aerial vehicle; and develop the navigation route from the source location to the destination location based at least in part on the delivery parameters and the environment information. 

This means that Amazon now holds a patent on a SLAM mapping drone (or any non specialised drone) updating a model of an environment in real time which another drone can use to navigate within that environment.  If the patent is applied broadly this could mean the following scenarios could infringe upon it:

1. If a drone crashes into an object not in an environment model, and sends a crash report to the central/shared model, updating the model with the location of the object could infringe the patent.

2.  If a drone senses/sees a fire, and a second drone is dispatched to the fire to deliver firefighting gear/equipment/suppressants, the system could infringe the patents.

3.  If a drone receives a call for first aid/defibrillator but is not rated to carry a load that heavy, so calls a second (heavier load) drone to pick up and deliver the lifesaving equipment, it could infringe the patent.

I believe this is huge problem going forward and should be a concern for all hobbyists and professionals working on mapping, SLAM drones and swarming.

As I've mentioned before, I believe some of the work I did with the Physical Package Protocol (formerly Pigeon Post) invalidates most of the claims in the patent (though I could be wrong), but I don't have the money/knowledge/skills/lawyers to challenge Amazon.  On the other hand, if anyone in the future has the resources and wants to free up the field from the threat of this patent, I'll be more than happy to provide proof of prior art, etc.

Following on from this mornings post about delivering cupcakes I thought I'd post a talk I gave last week at the Bootstrap Business Club in Manchester, UK. 

The main conceptual difference between the many Cupcake/Taco/Burrito Copters (including the Matternet idea http://matternet.us/ ) and the Pigeon Post is the former are all point to point systems and the latter uses (or will use) an IP like packet switching set up.  Anyway, take a look at the two videos below for more info and please give us your feedback!  Thanks.

Main Talk is above,

Q and A Session (most of it anyway)

Following on from the Tacocopter post I thought I'd update you on the Pigeon Post Smart Case design.

So I received some feedback from the last version (V 0.1.4) and have added it to my own thoughts.  The improvements fall into 3 main areas:

1.  Make it omnidirectional.  Basically the gripper on the UAV needs to be able to grip the top plate from any direction on the horizontal plane.  The base also needs to have a gripper so the case can be lifted easily if the case is upside down. 

2.  Add guides.  There needs to be physical aspects of the Case to guide the case into the Coop and the Quadcopter gripper onto the top centre of the Case.  Although these may be limited seeing that any sloping part can only be 10mm deep, the more the better.

3. Remove all moving parts.  The swinging up T bar of Version 0.1.4 was a huge point of failure and needs to be replaced with a single solid part.

Incorporating these changes actually made the Smart Case much easier to standardise, easier to manufacture and lighter.  I've actually redesigned it from the base plate up so have changed the version number to 0.2.1.

Here's an overview of the design:

For ease of storage this version can be manufactured to fold flat and stack on top of each other.  The most compact way is to make a case which can compact down into the 1cm base and top plates and stacked on top of each other.  This means that 15 compacted cases can be stored in the space of standard case.

You can download the model here: Download Smart Case V 0.2.1

And a the model I used for the Gif above: Download Smart Case V 0.2.1 Display

I'll also put the design in the Google SketchUp library and post some photos of the 3D printed version as soon as I receive it.

​One of the criticisms of the Pigeon Post system I've heard multiple times is the problem of rain and other adverse weather will have on the electronic systems and on the Smart Cases.  

Now I'm not an materials expert or an electrical engineer but looking at this product demo video, I think I might have just found a solution.*  Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you NeverWet:

One question I have about this super-hydrophobic wonder spray is how easy is it to remove?  Is there a anti-superhydrophobic cleaning solution?  

So who will be the first to use this stuff on their UAV and test it out in the rain?

* Yes I know this doesn't solve the wind problem but I'll get to that another time.

Originally posted over on the Pigeon Post Blog: http://pigeonpostco.squarespace.com/blog/2011/11/16/like-water-off-a-ducks-or-pigeons-back.html

Hi all again,

Following my first blog post on DIYDrones few people have asked what Pigeon Post is and why I'm posting here.

The Pigeon Post project is developing a system of technologies and standards to drag the snail mail and package delivery industry into the 21st Century.  It hopes to meet the following aims:

• Mail packages from the customer not a post box.
• Deliver to a person not a building or post code.
• Delivery time is set specifically or dictated by urgency and distance not First and Second Class.
• Price is flexible depending on demand and supply.
• Uses the existing untapped delivery capacity of public and private vehicles for medium and long distance deliveries.
• Cut the costs of delivering in rural areas where costs are presently the highest.

The strategy we are exploring at the moment is to use Quadcopters and internet protocol style packet switching concepts to move packages from customer to customer.

The project is slow launching this week as I'll be pitching the idea at Manchester Social Media Cafe and to The Next Web next week.  I'm looking for feedback at the moment, though not just "The technology isn't ready yet" as I've already answered that one over on the blog.  If you have any suggestions or questions about possible problems, solutions to those problems, or nice things to say in general, please comment here or email nathan@nathanrae.co.uk.  You can also follow what's happening on twitter as well.

If you would like to join the project I'm looking for people who can volunteer some knowledge, time and expertise on autonomous quadcopters and 3D prototyping.  I'm also looking for someone with a couple of spare copters laying around to make concept video showing how the system would/could work once it's up and running.  I'm going to bootstrap the project for a while until I have a comprehensive enough proposal and some video or animations before raising funding to accelerate the research stage.

Thanks, 

Nathan Rae.

So it looks like one crucial element in the Pigeon Post set up may have got a little more expensive.  The Guardian is reporting that Google will now be charging users who make more than 25000 API calls a day.
 
The pricing is pretty reasonable and I'm sure the Pigeon Post wont get close to the limit during the delevopment process but when we take off we'll be hitting the API almost constantly.  
 
The solution to this  around this would be to:
Simply pass the cost onto the customers.
Find an alternative free mapping service such as the Ordinance Survey in the UK.
Develop a way for the Perches to cache the local data and plot a course from memory.
Something someone more intelligent than me will think off.
 
We'll have to see...

Nathan Rae

Originally posted at www.pigeonpost.co/blog
 
The twitter account is now active so please follow thmeproject at www.twitter.com/pigeonpostco