While delivering goods via drones, positional accuracy and speed plays a crucial role, and that is ensured by the Positioning, Navigation and Timing (PNT) services provided by Global Navigation Satellite Stations (GNSS). PNT service helps in determining the location of the drone, and the speed at which it is travelling. It also suggests shortest possible route to reach point B from point A and helps in estimating the time required to deliver the product.
With the help of PNT system, and other systems that help in forecasting weather conditions, traffic congestion and map of the area, the GPS determines the tentative time it will take to get the product delivered.
Drones are used for surveillance, spraying pesticides, delivery of packages, mapping as well as for monitoring. Now usage of drones has been extended to other sectors as well like in healthcare sector to carry and deliver critical organs, blood tissues, live saving medications and vaccines to remote places in real-time which was otherwise time consuming and difficult to process.
Even though study suggests that the delivery rate of successful delivery carried out by drones to real-life cases is 92%, which is great but it becomes an issue of concern when healthcare related things come to picture. This is why the remaining 8% needs to be addressed.
Technical glitches are inevitable, but what is causing these glitches?
Drones rely heavily on PNT services and GPS systems for data collection and delivery of things, but PNT services are prone to distraction, jamming, and manipulations. These interferences and distractions can lead to loss of data as well as cause economic losses.
Also during harsh weather conditions or at night, the PNT service cannot provide proper signals from the satellites or detect any other object flying close to the drone, which can cause drone crash or accidents. Bad weathers can also drain battery, while flying against the wind, or midair motor failure might cause the drone to end up on a tree or waterbody or in damaged condition.
“We are observing a disturbing trend of drone service providers conducting Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) operations without the necessary controls to reduce the likelihood of mid-air collision with another aircraft or avoiding causing harm to people on the ground”, says a top official from ANRA Technologies.
Vikram Singh Meena, Founder & CEO, TechEagle Innovations states, “Industry needs to build redundancy at different levels i.e. robust communication, propulsion systems, Hack & Jam proof systems, Reliable operations & Strong SOPs.”
“The main issue why we don’t see routine drone deliveries throughout the US is because current regulations require you to always have eyes on the drone. So, the delivery tests we’ve conducted required up to 5 people scattered throughout the delivery path, to always keep eyes on the drone – not an economically viable operation. We are working directly with the FAA and industry to develop the regulations for BVLOS operations, which will unlock the true potential of routine commercial drone deliveries”, says Tony Basile, Chief of Operations, NUAIR.
Gartner predicts that by the year 2026, more than one million drones will be carrying out retail deliveries. If the future is going to rely on drone-based delivery service then the root cause of the problems needs to be identified and eradicated.
Here are a few points how the challenges can be mitigated:
“Autonomous drones offer lower cost per mile and higher speed than vans in last-mile deliveries. When they deliver parcels, their operational costs are at least 70% lower than a van delivery service,” Pedro Pacheco, Senior Director Analyst, Gartner was quoted as saying.
Multiple industries are leveraging and even in future, they are going to invest heavily in drone-based delivery service as well as in drone technology for their business development, which is why innovation in this technology is inevitable.
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