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Google/YouTube
The autonomous drones lined up and ready for take-off.
# send in the drones
Move over Amazon! Google is working on its own drone delivery service
So far, it has successfully delivered a number of items to farmers in the Australian outback, but the project is “years away” from becoming official.
GOOGLE’S RESEARCH LAB has built and tested out autonomous delivery drones which will be used to deliver goods in the future.
Codenamed Project Wing, the initiative uses self-flying vehicles to deliver items and goods to people in rural areas.
The project was tested out in Queensland, Australia where it successfully delivered a first aid kit, sweets, dog treats and water to a number of Australian farmers.
According to the BBC, Google said its long-term goal was to develop drones that could be used for disaster relief by delivering aid to isolated areas.
In the event of a disaster, they could be used to deliver small items like medicine and batteries to people that conventional vehicles cannot reach.
The drones use four electrically-driven propellers and weighs just under 19 pounds. It can take off and land without a runway and it comes equipped with a GPS, camera, radio and accelerometers and gyroscopes to help the craft position itself.
For delivery, it hovers and winches packages down to the ground using a tether. According to The Atlantic, when the package reaches the ground, a bundle of electronics called the ‘egg’ detects this, detaches the tether from the package and pulls it back up into the body of the drone.
Google X has been working on the project since 2011, although it says that the project is “years away” from becoming official.
Earlier in the year, Google bought solar-powered drone maker, Titan Aerospace, for an undisclosed fee. However, its use was said to be for Project Loon, the company’s effort to connect the world to the internet.
