Reference no: EM131168237 , Length: word count:1500
You are the project manager for an organisation that aims to use drones in the future for the delivery of its products in New Zealand. Choose one management function from Planning, Organising, Leading and Controlling and discuss how some of the potential concerns associated with drone delivery can be addressed and mitigated through application of this management function.
The marking criteria for the report are shown below. You will be assessed on the quality of your argument; the number and quality of research sources cited and the writing itself.
Length: 1200 - 1500 words (excluding Table of Contents; diagrams and tables; reference list; and appendices). Use Times New Roman or Arial 12 pt font with 1.5 line spacing.
Amazon delivery drone prototype unveiled
Matt McFarland
Almost exactly two years after announcing its plans to deliver packages with a drone, Amazon has revealed a new prototype of one of its delivery drones
Amazon's prototype is an octocopter - meaning it has eight propellers and can take off and land vertically, like a helicopter. But the design includes wings and a ‘pusher motor' so that it can transition from helicopter takeoffs to the energy-efficient flight of a plane at altitude.
At altitude only the pusher motor - the large propeller in the back of the drone - is in motion. The eight other propellers reactivate once the drone is about to land and needs to make a vertical descent into a yard.
The drone releases the package onto what looks like a sheet of plastic with an Amazon logo. The larger the yard and the less tree cover, the easier the landing will be. Amazon will need to be certain its drone can land in a backyard without any mishaps involving a family pet, kids, stray sports equipment, a new birdbath or whatever else might be in the yard.
Amazon says its drone has "sophisticated sense and avoid technology," which will be essential for those backyard landings. For example, with sense and avoid, a drone would realise a dog had strayed into its landing zone and not land until the coast was clear.
Actual flight footage shows the drone flying between 88 - 93 kmh. That speed will come in handy if Amazon is going to deliver on its promise of getting packages to customers in 30 minutes.
Drone delivery service planned for Australia
Australia may soon be the first country in the world to see commercial courier deliveries by drone, if a launch by a textbook rental service and an Australian tech start-up goes according to plan. Pending regulatory approval, students will be able to order books from Zookal via an Android smartphone app and have one of six Flirtey drones deliver them to their door in Sydney. As the drone arrives, students will be able to track it in real-time on a Google map.
After its initial launch, Flirtey hopes to then expand the service to other products and locations, even seeing potential to deliver food and drinks to people and blood to and from blood banks and hospitals in future.
Textbook rental service Zookal partnered with Flirtey, a start-up born at the University of Sydney, to cut costs on deliveries. If Flirtey gets the approval of Australia's Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) it will be the first use of fully automated commercial drones for deliveries in the world, the company claims.
Australian regulators entered the Drone Age in 2002, when Australia became the first country to introduce legislation covering unmanned aerial vehicles, leading the world in creating rules governing civilian use of the technology. But whether the company can get CASA's approval remains to be seen, as there are many hurdles they will need to face in order to obtain it.
Melbourne's Metropolitan Fire Brigade already uses drones to survey emergency situations. In one recent example, it used a "CyberQuads" drone to survey a truck hanging precariously from a freeway in Melbourne's north in March. Animal rights activists have also used them to spy on farmers, while Channel 9's 60 Minutes used one when it flew over Christmas
Island's immigration detention centre. The craft later crashed into the sea. Another crash occurred earlier this month when a drone collided with the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
Their use for deliveries has yet to be realised, although a number of companies have attempted to get the idea off the ground. Domino's Pizza sent its ‘DomiCopter' on a test flight in June in Britain. Tacocopter.com also wanted to deliver tacos to San Francisco's Bay Area using drones, but commercial drones aren't yet a possibility in the US and Britain.
The US Federal Aviation Authority acting administrator, Michael Huerta, recently said the agency was poised to realign itself to prepare for the coming explosion of drones. It will begin granting personal and commercial licences in 2015 and estimates that there could be as many as 30,000 drones flying around the US by 2020.
Unlike many amateur drones which are steered with a remote control, Flirtey will be autonomous and use "collision avoidance" technology to avoid birds and buildings. It will fly high enough to avoid pedestrians and below 122 metres.
The delivery mechanism allows for textbooks to be safely lowered to the customer without the drone having to leave its hovering height of about three metres. If gentle force is applied to the drone's lowering cord, the parcel is released.
It has built in redundancy, including a back-up battery, and can also continue to operate if one rotor blade fails.
The drones - which can carry up to 2 kilograms - will significantly reduce the cost of delivering textbooks. Same day postal delivery in Australia can cost up to $29.95, a cost Zookal absorbs, but Flirtey will cost just $2.99.
The drones will also reduce waiting times to as little as two to three minutes, the company claims.
In the future, Flirtey plans to deliver food and drinks and it sees potential in using drones at beaches to deliver life vests to those in distress, and in hospitals, where blood could be transported to and from blood banks.
Haider said the idea of delivering textbooks via drones came about after trying to find ways to reduce delivery cost, one of the company's biggest expenses. "We immediately saw that commercialising this technology would solve so many problems within logistics."
Flirtey founder Matt Sweeny said he came up with the idea of using drones while in China where his McDonald's orders were delivered via bicycle "in moments". Should CASA not approve delivery directly to homes, Sweeny said designated "drop off" areas, in places such as parks, might become Plan B.