Automated flight without line of sight piloting will be possible with the PROWL system, where the delivery drone can take a planned route that can be more certain of avoiding obstacles. Advanced planning of a route can ensure that distance travelled can be maximised for a shorter flying time, by having prior knowledge of areas that need to be avoided.
The time will come when you will be able to order a product online, and then within a few hours, a drone will deliver the purchase directly to you – no more waiting for a delivery driver to put your package into their road vehicle, waiting for the time when they plan their route to go along your street. With a low-cost drone (cheaper than a truck and driver) being able to fly directly to you and avoid road traffic, deliveries can be cheaper and faster. However – the customer does not want to hear that their product has been lost or damaged by a drone crashing or getting entangled in wires or trees. Delivery companies don’t want to have the cost of drone pilots – staged within line of sight of each other – to control drones. What everyone needs is a real “fire and forget”, fully automated – and trusted – service.
Traditional collision detection and avoidance systems may not be enough to assist a delivery drone – how does it know if it is going down a dead-end street surrounded by tall buildings? PROWL will allow advance knowledge of the objects on the flight path.
The PROWL database is populated through crowdsourcing. Contributors will be able to submit their own objects – from hobby operators and commercial organisations (like delivery companies) to drones submitting detected objects themselves. This will enable a picture of objects and hazards to be created that includes the suburbs and remote areas that have previously not been included in 3D models of the world.