Wing project drones will deliver fast food to student dormitories at the University of Virginia.

Drone of the project "Wing" lowers the load during a test flight. Photo: Alphabet Inc.

Alphabet, the parent company of Google, continues to experiment with the delivery of goods by unmanned aerial vehicles. For several years, research and development unit X has been working on a pilot project, Wing (Project Wing). Ideally, drones will be able to bring goods from point A to point B completely without human participation. In the future, such devices will be widely used to deliver mail and goods from the store. Very comfortably.

Alphabet engineers are now bringing to life all the necessary details - avionics, engines, batteries and navigation systems to ensure the safety of drones in flight. UAVs need to respond to the environment in real time and intelligently share the airspace with hundreds of drones from other commercial companies and individuals, as well as with ordinary airplanes and birds.

To date, the project staff conducted thousands of experimental flights on private airfields with UAV prototypes. They were convinced that drones can quickly and safely deliver packages, including over long distances.
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In September 2016, the Wing project enters a new stage of its development. From single tests, he proceeds to experimental commercial operation using at the same time a multitude of drones in a densely populated urban area under the condition that the operator is hidden from view.

Alphabet was able to negotiate with the administration of the Virginia Polytechnic University on the delivery of fast food to student campus campuses. The Chipotle Mexican Grill, a local eatery in Blacksburg, took over the orders.



A snack bar is located directly near the hostels.



Trials will begin in September and last for several weeks.

This project will be the first large-scale testing of commercial delivery of goods by UAVs with the participation of unauthorized persons in the US (when the recipient of the goods is not a company employee, but a third party).

Flight authorization has already been received from the United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The project is important for the whole country. Here, promising technologies are being tested, which can be widely used in the future for cargo delivery, inspections of energy and agriculture facilities, in rescue operations, for urgent delivery of medicines to remote areas, on the battlefield, for scientific purposes, etc. The possibilities of using drones are truly endless. On August 29, 2016, the FAA updated the rules for commercial drones that were given much more freedom. They were allowed to remove almost 5 km from the launch site, hide from the operator’s view, etc. Television drones were allowed to fly over people's heads for videotaping. True, in the dark it will not be allowed to fly at all, but there is some progress.

“The commercial use of drones for delivering packages and food in the US airspace is fast becoming a reality,” commented Sen. Mark R. Warner. “We are pleased to cooperate with the staff of the Wing project and other excellent partners to realize the scientific research potential of the Virginia Polytechnic University in the field of incredible business opportunities offered by the technology of unmanned aerial vehicles.”

At the first stage, the experiment will be limited to a small group of students and university staff, but still this is the most extensive test of commercial cargo delivery by UAVs in UAVs.

Food delivery is ideal for running in technology, because there is one launch point, almost identical delivery addresses, constant flight times, environmental conditions, roughly the same flight frequency and cargo volume / weight. That is, from the point of view of scientific analysis, the conditions are almost laboratory.

In 2013, the United States Federal Aviation Administration selected Polytechnic University of Virginia and five more locations in the country to conduct unmanned vehicle tests.

The university rector fully supported the idea . He says that last year, at a meeting with businessmen, he joked about the fact that it would be good to arrange for the delivery of noodles on campus by quadcopters. Almost the way it happened - only instead of noodles, drones will bring burritos, because there are no noodles in Mexican eateries (this dish is more likely Chinese and Japanese cuisine).



During the tests, Alphabet company intends to collect important information about the technical conditions of operation of the UAV, safety, operation of the navigation system. Carefully record customer reviews. This data is required to improve service before launching drones nationwide, when the automatic package and food delivery service becomes available to all. Developers are also interested in how much this service will be in demand - how often students in the dormitory need a fresh snack (drones will deliver it still warm from the kitchen).

Fast automatic delivery of goods to your home will greatly facilitate the lives of ordinary people. No need to go to the grocery store for every little thing. Products from Chinese online stores will fly home straight from the post office. Theoretically, the delivery by drones should be faster and cheaper than the delivery by land transport. So that people can save money while improving the quality of service.

Having a personal mail drone, you can quickly send the necessary thing to the child or wife. For example, if it suddenly started to rain, an umbrella would fly in from the house within five minutes (when using the drone model in a waterproof case, of course). If a child on the street wanted to play football, the ball will smoothly descend to him from the balcony.