Google’s ‘Mobile Delivery Receptacle’ Will Receive Your Drone Deliveries

So, enter the mobile delivery receptacle, which is informed of a incoming package and travels to the delivery location, or presumably as close as is safe for the drone to venture.

“The delivery device transports the package to the delivery address and locates one or more first beacons being transmitted by a delivery receptacle at the delivery address”, the patent says. The receptacle is created to utilize infrared beacons to communicate with drones whizzing overhead and then guide them to deliver the packages securely.

A drone may also find it hard to spot a safe place to leave a package or to understand detailed delivery instructions, the patent said, while “conventional aerial delivery device methods do not allow for safe, secure delivery of packages to delivery locations”.

Unlike most drone manufacturers, Google’s Project Wing is experimenting with drones that look more akin to gliders than those with rotors and blades. Now a new patent filing from the company reveals how part of Project Wing deliveries could deliver your packages.

As the patent application describes, Google’s delivery receptacles are likely to work as a self-driven vehicle using their own wheels and engine.

Dubbed “Project Wing”, the initiative was announced in August 2014 with a YouTube video showing a field test conducted in Australia. Such plans are on hold, though, until the US Federal Aviation Authority lays down rules governing commercial drone use.

Before drone deliveries can be made on any significant scale, several obstacles need to be overcome.

By early January, 181,061 drones were registered.

Vos, who is co-chair of the task force, said during a Consumer Electronics Show workshop earlier this month that existing regulations are sufficient to allow the operation of drones.

“I would advocate strongly that the need for additional regulation is very, very small”. Therefore, there could be some delay in the launch of services that require drones.