Drone Lifting All Cargo Innovation
Google was born in the
mining part of California, so it makes sense that it has a large, visible
operation on Main Street, smack dab in the middle of Cambridge, Massachusetts.
There’s gold in the daily street life,
as an endless parade of eager, smart, and well-to-do young people attend
Harvard and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where the yearly
cost of gaining an education can top $60,000.
Google X, the experimental part of the global
giant, has partnered with Nick Roy, an MIT roboticist who took a two-year
sabbatical to lead “Project Wing,” the Google scheme to develop
package-delivering drones. The story sparked the public’s imagination
with visions of small, solar-powered aircraft filling the skies.
“It’s a matter of when, not
if,” said one observer.
It has been just four years since Google
bought Titan Aerospace, a maker of solar-powered drones, which among other
things could deliver internet access to various parts of the world (Google
has branded that effort “Project Loon”). So it’s little
surprise that research with self-flying vehicles would include a variant
that might carry merchandise.
“Project Wing” is underway,
but Google expects it will take several more years before a fleet of drones
is fully operational.
Test flights in Australia two weeks ago
delivered a first aid kit, candy bars, dog treats, and water to some farmers
after traveling a distance of roughly one kilometer, or just over a half
mile.
Now if they can only figure out how to deliver
rain to those farmers.
Google's video of the test flight is set
to the music of the 1969 pop song “Spirit In The Sky”
Geoffrey
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