A lot of people are talking about Jeff Bezos’ plans for the delivery methods of Amazon, and “drone” has become something of a buzzword. So you should know that Amazon’s new PrimeAir service wont actually be using drones.

They’ll be using robots.

A drone needs to be controlled remotely by a human. A robot, on the other hand, makes its own decisions. Amazon’s flying delivery-helicopters will be made to fly and deliver packages autonomously. The devices will make decisions on their own about how to fly and where to land — no human operator is required. At least, this is what Amazon envisions.

And the technology is already here. The PrimeAir service could literally take off tomorrow. Although, legally speaking, it can’t. The FAA bans the use of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) in the US for commercial purposes. This might change in the near future, though.

In the mean time, Bezos was vague about what needed to happen before an official launch, mentioning “redundancies” and ensuring the drones don’t land on peoples’ heads.

Anyone who’s ever tried to fly a remote-controlled helicopter will know just how hard it is to fully manipulate a flying vehicle – and these things will have to fly themselves.

Which means that Amazon’s flying bots will have to dodge trees, lampposts and birds – and be able to recover if something were to go faulty in mid-air.

The robot’s design helps with this: Amazon opted for an octocopter, with eight rotors, which means that if one or two of the rotors stops working, it would be able to remain operational.

Tushevs Aerials founder Georgi Tushevs, said:

To achieve this range and duration, the robot would have to be larger than what’s popular today. These vehicles should be able to carry a six-cell battery and have more efficient, slower motors. They would have to be at least four times the size of say, the DJI Phantom or the TBS Discovery. This larger size generates safety risks.

[Source : Mashable]