Amazon plans to deploy drone-distributing airborne warehouses

Amazon's patent shows its ambitions to have a (lighter-than-air) Zeplin style airships serving as warehouses

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Amazon’s flying warehouse are dubbed as an airborne fulfillment center (AFC) and will remain in the air at 45,000 ft (Source: US Patents Office)

Amazon has been testing drone delivery for quite sometime now, but a recent discovery of a patent filing by the company shows its ambitions to have a (lighter-than-air) Zeplin style airships serving as flying warehouses. Earlier this month, Amazon successfully made a drone delivery with its Prime Air service and might be the first step towards the realisation of aerostat warehouses.

Amazon’s flying warehouses are dubbed as an airborne fulfillment centers (AFC) and are designed to remain at a height of 45,000 feet, automatically replenishing UAVs with items that are then flown to designated delivery locations of Prime service users.

“As the UAVs descend, they can navigate horizontally toward a user specified delivery location using little to no power, other than to stabilize the UAV and/or guide the direction of descent. Shuttles (smaller airships) may be used to replenish the AFC with inventory, UAVs, supplies, fuel, etc. Likewise, the shuttles may be utilized to transport workers to and from the AFC,” reads an abstract from the Amazon patent.

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Amazon plans to position the AFC above a metropolitan area, allowing a user to browse the e-commerce website and place and order for an item that is their in the AFC’s inventory. This delivery will then be fulfilled by one of the UAVs on board the AFC. After completion of the delivery, the UAV can navigate to a nearby ground facility or a shuttle replacement location.

Temperature controlled drones can also be placed on the AFCs making them ideally suited for delivery of food. For example, if there is a football match going on, Amazon AFC will be positioned nearby and be stocked with snacks and souvenirs that sports fans can potentially purchase.

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Apart from this, Amazon has also envisioned larger shuttles that could potentially carry people, drones and supplies to the AFCs and back to the ground. The filing explains how the company plans the drones and AFCs will work like a network, relaying data about wind speed, weather, etc to each other.

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