The Unspoken Truth of the Drone Delivery Sector
Technology has made the daily lives of humans much easy. Several impossible tasks can now be performed with the help of modern-day technologies that once seemed impossible. Drone technology is one such technology that has brought significant feasibility to performing routine activities. Drones are now capable of traveling to places that were once out of the reach of humans.
Advancing drone technology is allowing the drones to have multiple capabilities, such as carrying and delivering packages to far places in a short time. These drones are also capable of performing several sophisticated missions such as product and food delivery in the military areas during wars.
So before moving forward on the challenges and benefits, let’s understand more about drone delivery.
A Short Introduction to Drone Delivery:
An unmanned aerial vehicle, which is also called a drone, is controlled using phone apps or remotes and used for different purposes such as delivery, tracking, and data gathering. Using these drones with the motive of delivering a product is called drone delivery.
As of late, the use of drones for delivery is gaining immense popularity in the transportation and logistics industry. These drones are used for delivering multiple commodities such as medicine, groceries, home care products, food, and others.
The key reason behind drone delivery technology gaining such popularity is its eco-friendly operation, low operation cost, accuracy, and lesser delivery time compared to traditional delivery methods.
Also, the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the need to look for safe, contactless, and alternative delivery models. The pandemic has increased the demand for delivery services using drone delivery technology.
As per the BIS Research reports, the global drone delivery market is expected to reach $1,676.9 million in 2023, with a CAGR of 14.50% during the forecast period 2023-2030.
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Challenges Associated with Drone Delivery:
While drones are autonomous, challenges such as drones landing in unknown places or environments are often encountered, including some other challenges. Few such challenges are as follows:
• Expensive Device
The prices of the delivery drones are usually high. Though there are few affordable drones but achieving the same performance and quality of service from them is not possible. Most of the drones used by large companies these days range from $50 to $500 for small to large drones.
• Legislative Uncertainty
The use of drones is yet not acceptable in several countries, and to stop illegal operation of drones, several policies have also been made. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has made certain rules for drones that apply for recreational and commercial uses, but there are many obscurities, such as saving landowners from aerial trespassing and defining airspace property rights.
• Safety
Drone technology is not capable of playing well in all weather conditions. Despite having weather and visual sensors, there could be situations when drones might be unable to face the weather challenges.
For example, flying a drone in rain and lighting can be risky. Moreover, such climate challenges can also result in damage to the products being delivered. In such scenarios, the chances of a drone getting crashed by or into other aerial things and/or falling are more.
• Battery Defect
Delivery drones are packed with different technologies that increase the chances of the battery getting drained in less time. The drone can easily run out of battery in between while delivering to a particularly targeted location.
In such cases, these drones can fall at any place and result in damaging the product or can fall on a property or person.
How has the Internet of Things helped in overcoming the challenges associated with drone Delivery?
The Internet of Things (IoT) can be the solution to all the current challenges in the drone delivery sector. It can help with providing solutions such as data logging, allowing better access/control, real-time tracking, and providing better-automated deliveries.
Drones built using IoT-based sensors can help in collecting different information such as flight conditions, weather reports, defects in drones, and other flight-related data.
IoT can also help businesses in controlling drone operations related to delivery remotely. Since safety is the major concern for the drone delivery sectors, using IoT sensors can help drones in scanning the potential danger in the airspace and passing warning to the pilot.
Another challenge for the drone delivery system is batteries and defective parts. IoT can help in performing predictive maintenance that can let the pilot know about the condition of the drone before a flight and avoid last-minute faults.
Moreover, IoT can also help in tracking the exact location and position of the drone delivering a product.
Overall, IoT can be a great solution for overcoming the challenges within the drone delivery sector. With machine learning and sensors, it collects more valuable data, which can be later used to improve the safety of a drone trip.
Conclusion
Drones delivering packets is yet an unknown idea to several online shoppers, mainly because of the fewer options that are available for availing a drone delivery. However, as more organizations continue to choose drone delivery, it is expected to become less of a luxury option and more of simplified delivery assistance. Additionally, this will also alter customers’ opinions.
