Autonomous delivery drones have to arrive at the right spot and leave goods safely, but GPS alone can miss by enough to hit a roof, a tree or a child.
Wing places a QR code on each landing pad, large enough for the incoming eVTOL drone to scan and confirm its location before touchdown, then uses a tether to lower the package to ground level.
The approach removes the need for an aircraft to set down on uneven, uncertain terrain, and it lets the drone take off again immediately — used in the first North American drone delivery service, in Christiansburg, Virginia, and later in Australia.
Print a QR code on the pad so the drone can check itself in
A QR code gives the drone a precise, visible anchor that GPS can't provide.
Lowering the parcel on a tether means the drone never has to land in a risky spot.
It is a passive fix — print it on the pad and the infrastructure needs no power or sensors.
The drone leaves the package and departs immediately, so it spends little time on station.
When a machine can't resolve its position precisely enough, give the environment a landmark it can read — cheap, passive and foolproof.
Wing's QR-code landing pads supported the first North American drone delivery service in Christiansburg, Virginia, and its network later expanded, including a Walmart drone-delivery partnership
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The sources
- Drone Delivery Is Near With FAA, NASA Focused on Safety Bloomberg Businessweek (via Bond Case Briefs) · bondcasebriefs.com ·
- Drone food delivery service takes off in Ipswich Ipswich First · ipswichfirst.com.au ·