Amazon Designed a Mobile Platform for Its Delivery Drones

Amazon clearly believes that drones are key to the online shopping giant’s continued success and evolution. But any internet of things app developer with experience working on drones will tell you that we are still in the Wild West phase of drone development. Laws and regulations regarding drone air traffic are still being worked out, but Amazon has bigger fish to fry (after all, the company’s wealth and power will surely come in handy when it comes time to really set the rules in stone). If the company wants to command a fleet of autonomous drones capable of pulling off same or next day deliveries, it is going to need to put in place a wildly complicated infrastructure.

Amazon has put its brightest minds to the task of devising an efficient drone system, and some of their ideas are bonkers. Blueprints for a mobile drone platforms recently leaked, revealing one of the online retailer’s wildest concepts for the UAV future. Patent filings show what is essentially a mobile base of operations for Amazon’s drone fleet. A special shipping container that could be transported on a train, boat, or eighteen-wheeler, the platform would include an automated hatch in the ceiling for drones to enter. Inside the container, there would be a maintenance zone where drones could get new batteries, basic repairs, and necessary communications. As bizarre as the idea sounds, IoT app developers are still intrigued.

The patents also suggest that Amazon is considering a second container loaded up with popular items for quicker delivery times. For Chicago IoT app developers, this kind of unconventional solution seems like a possible way forward as drone delivery becomes the norm. This mobile drone platform would allow Amazon to address the specific demands of different communities and to maintain its fleet on the move. Amazon might be onto something — if it can pull it off.