Introduction

Light   cargo delivery drone is autonomous vehicle which   is used for transporting foods, packages or all other products. New generation for autonomous delivery vehicles have capability to carry several pounds for several miles. They are quick, much more environmentally friendly as well as could change industry of cargo completely (Boyle 2020). Light cargo delivery drones offer same benefits for speed as well as reduced carbon footprint, however on much higher scale. Focusing in the rural areas as well as shutting goods among distribution centers, the light cargo delivery drones are designed for landing in water as well as takeoff vertically and making the drop-offs much more flexible. Light cargo delivery drones come in every size and shape. Light cargo delivery drones would be taxied in standard port, in where cargo could be unloaded with the use of cranes.

Light cargo delivery drone could transport vaccines as well as medicines, along with retrieve   the medical samples, out of and into remote or inaccessible regions. Light cargo delivery drone could be used also for delivering food products to the customers (Chalupníčková et al., 2014).  Service of light cargo delivery drone is   undertaken by several countries as   they test profitability as well as feasibility of unmanned services of light cargo delivery drones.

 Theoretical Capabilities Light Drone Cargo

Amazon Prime Air used three coders for coding the light cargo delivery drones. Coding procedure was started with set of determined categories which includes expected benefits, anticipated barriers, proposed solutions and potential problems. Expected benefits are the benefits which technology of drone is hoped in bringing to certain interest groups, society, procedures or users as whole. The anticipated barriers are the concrete obstacles which prevent drone’s mass use within several commercial use cases. The potential problems are the negative implications as well as challenges which are inherent to technology to drone that would result from development, use and introduction. The proposed solutions are the concrete measures that allow in overcoming the anticipated barriers, solve the potential problems as well as realize expected benefits of technology of drone (Hardeman 2020).

This is expected that logistics services of drone supported would lead in lower costs for Amazon Prime Air in rapidly growing as well as logistic sector which is price sensitive. Emphasis is upon contribution of light cargo delivery drone for better delivery service to the customers. The light cargo delivery drones might relieve pressure on congested streets as well as allow quicker commuting in air. The reallocation must enable also faster commuting over ground. However, few of the anticipated threats of light cargo delivery drone are physical safety, crashes, collisions, injuries and accidents.

It is observed that lack of drone’s acceptance is an anticipated barriers of light cargo delivery drone. Another anticipated barrier of light cargo delivery drone is the legal issues. Proposed solutions for legal nature of light cargo delivery drone discuss legislative processes’ future coordination, incorporating both soft and hard law. The focus of the technical solutions focus upon concrete approaches for issues like navigation, communication as well as drones’ automatization (Meier and Bergelund 2017). It is clear that disclosure is characterized heavily by regulatory as well as technical issues. Light cargo delivery drones are claimed as advantage to the societies and would have considerable impact within fields of technological, business, academic as well as social development.

Practical Feasibility and Effectiveness of Light Drone Cargo

Amazon Prime Air attempts to deliver packages weighing up to 5 pounds and the delivery time as told by the company is 30 minutes or even less than that. To check whether this is feasible as well as effective in the practical world some considerations had to be made:

Firstly ensuring safety which is the foremost priority and the company assures that the light cargo drones have been developed with not one but multiple redundancies along with sense and avoid technology.

Secondly the effectiveness of the technology is also dependent on factors such as weather conditions. The light cargo drones cannot be made use of in bad weather. The four basic considerations related to weather conditions are wind, precipitation, temperature and lastly visibility (Aurambout, Gkoumas and Ciuffo 2019). At present, wind can be considered as the most significant limitation. It is unlikely that light cargo drones weighing less than 55 lb or 25 kg weight constraint in US FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) flight regulations will have the capability to perform in winds at 55 kph (Vergouw, Nagel, Bondt and Custers 2016). Another major limitation is visibility that is as per the US regulations the drones that are fully autonomous still have to be kept in sight and semi-controlled by an operator.

Regulations are another crucial consideration in the drone delivery system like in as per FAA’s regulation; drones need to be always in visual sight of a remote certificate holder. This is one of the biggest hurdles and terms as line of sight or LOS stipulation. Usage of drone in regions nearer to airports is yet another major concern. It can be said that regulations are getting relaxed with time but still there is still some time to get the technology fully implemented. The financial feasibility is another concern as it can be said that drone cost is volatile in nature and it cannot be estimated easily. Payload refers to the weight of the cargo that the delivery drone carries (Butcher and Lim 2019). This is to be considered in case of drone technology along with the speeds of this delivery drones. Endurance plays another major role as this checks on the amount of operational time that a drone could fly without being recharged. Thus, it can be said that all these above mentioned factors are hindrances on the path of light cargo drones to be fully accepted as delivery vehicles.

Conclusion and Recommendations

From the discussion it can be concluded that, light cargo drones are an emerging and revolutionary technology but the only issue is that this technology has to be fully prepared to uproot the traditional system of delivery. The issues that have been highlighted need to be worked and same goes for the regulation as well. The light cargo delivery drones comes with both opportunity as well as risks. Drone delivery system as mentioned above has various limitations that can be reason behind its restriction in many areas as well as applications. Cost reduction has no such significance but it can be said that these have potential to drive profits. Amazon can make use of the drone technology only in certain places and obviously in favorable conditions.

Recommendations

1. Proper ground reality check should be done before implementation of the technology fully fledged manner.

2. The line of sight of operator is a necessity.

3. The drones being used for the purpose of delivery should be tested at regular intervals may be every 24 months.

References

Aurambout, J.P., Gkoumas, K. and Ciuffo, B., 2019. Last mile delivery by drones: an estimation of viable market potential and access to citizens across European cities. European Transport Research Review, 11(1), p.30.

Boyle, M.J., 2020. The Drone Age: How Drone Technology Will Change War and Peace. Oxford University Press, USA.

Butcher, B. and Lim, K., 2019. Assessing Feasibility of the Delivery Drone.

Chalupníčková, H., Bahenský, P., Sýkora, V. and Heralová, D., 2014. The use of drones in air cargo transportation. Econ. Soc. Environ., pp.1-6.

Hardeman, A.B., 2020. Sustainable Alternative Air Transport Technologies. In Sustainable Aviation (pp. 277-306). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.

Meier, P. and Bergelund, J., 2017. Field-testing the First Cargo Drone Deliveries in the Amazon Rainforest.

Vergouw, B., Nagel, H., Bondt, G. and Custers, B., 2016. Drone technology: Types, payloads, applications, frequency spectrum issues and future developments. In The Future of Drone Use (pp. 21-45). TMC Asser Press, The Hague.