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Two Amazon delivery drones crash into crane in commercial area of Tolleson, AZ

abc15.com

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Re: Two Amazon delivery drones crash into crane in commercial area of Tolleson, AZ

#171

Post by nkrisc »

imglorp wrote: post #92
jollyllama wrote: post #32

Terrifying. Imagine being a roofer or other worker when a delivery drone knocks your ass off the n-th floor surface that you're working on. It wouldn't take much to get somebody killed in such a precarious situation.

Impact aside, really, any contact to a soft meat bag by an 80lb machine surrounded by whirling propellers at high rpm will result in an unpleasant outcome.

An 80lb mass moving at any appreciable speed hitting you is going to suck regardless of what it is.

At a leisurely 3 mi/h, wolfram alpha gives this amusing comparison: about 0.36 times the momentum of an American football player moving at a speed of 1 m/s.

Re: Two Amazon delivery drones crash into crane in commercial area of Tolleson, AZ

#172

Post by diggan »

perihelions wrote: post #149
andrewl-hn wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You may have a tall mas or an antenna and massive cables stretching at angles around it for support. The distance between the base of the mast and the base of supporting cables can be quite large, so even a simple logic like "stay 100m away from tall structures" can be insufficient. It would be interesting to see what comes out of this investigation. Hopefully the injured person will be alright.

> "stay 100m away from tall structures" But then how do you deliver to the upper floors of vertical buildings? That must be half the near-term market for these kinds of drones: people in dense, urban areas well-served by local droneports, who are looking for convenience above all else. If you can't safely manage urban canyons—you can't manage. It'd be like selling self-driving cars that are only approved for private…

> But then how do you deliver to the upper floors of vertical buildings?

Maybe asking the obvious, do you need to? Why not drop the package downstairs, people can use the elevator like normal people? Assuming there is some sort of hand-off with identification.

Re: Two Amazon delivery drones crash into crane in commercial area of Tolleson, AZ

#173

Post by mr_toad »

bell-cot wrote: post #156
CamperBob2 wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

5 miles sounds pretty ridiculous, TBH. These things aren't moving at Mach 3.

At a mere (say) 240mph, 5 miles is 75 seconds. Talk to an experienced pilot about how short a time that is, when a bottom-10% pilot is trying to figure out some problem with his instrumentation, or has set his radio to the wrong frequency, or whatever.

> At a mere (say) 240mph, 5 miles is 75 seconds.

The world record holder for a quadcopter drone is 224 mph. Not many drones can beat 100 mph.

According to one article I found Amazons drones can manage 50mph.

Re: Two Amazon delivery drones crash into crane in commercial area of Tolleson, AZ

#174

Post by numpad0 »

codedokode wrote: post #155
crazygringo wrote: post #102

To be clear, they crashed into the vertical cable hanging down from the end of the crane. Not into the structure of the crane itself. So it's not as bad as "they don't see cranes". But it absolutely raises the question of whether they can see cables , whether hanging from cranes or spanning telephone poles. And honestly, cables are really hard to see in the air. That's literally why high-voltage power lines hang thos…

Cables are not hard to see with eyes.

Not at a distance. They're basically transparent even to our naked eyes at aircraft speed and distance scales. Let alone to digital cameras on flying robots. They'll probably have to either use really good active sensors(ITAR), or infer possible areas of danger from visually cable-end-like features.

Re: Two Amazon delivery drones crash into crane in commercial area of Tolleson, AZ

#175

Post by zoklet-enjoyer »

crazygringo wrote: post #102

To be clear, they crashed into the vertical cable hanging down from the end of the crane. Not into the structure of the crane itself. So it's not as bad as "they don't see cranes". But it absolutely raises the question of whether they can see cables , whether hanging from cranes or spanning telephone poles. And honestly, cables are really hard to see in the air. That's literally why high-voltage power lines hang thos…

The solution is don't use delivery drones.

Re: Two Amazon delivery drones crash into crane in commercial area of Tolleson, AZ

#176

Post by ajcp »

neom wrote: post #123
ajcp wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm currently in Phoenix and it's a little after 10am and the sun is almost directly overhead at this time of day. Would they need sensors pointing directly overhead in-flight?

If that's the case my little theory makes no sense. Thanks!

Of course!

Re: Two Amazon delivery drones crash into crane in commercial area of Tolleson, AZ

#177

Post by neom »

ajcp wrote: post #176
neom wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If that's the case my little theory makes no sense. Thanks!

Of course!

btw, the animation on your website is absolutely beautiful. It's both haunting and pretty at the same time, really cool.

Re: Two Amazon delivery drones crash into crane in commercial area of Tolleson, AZ

#178

Post by UltraSane »

JKCalhoun wrote: post #162

Trying too hard to push a Jetson’s future on us that no one wants… I feel like soon kids will order the cheapest thing on Amazon for the free drone it comes with.

Speak for yourself. I want drones to deliver stuff directly to me.

Re: Two Amazon delivery drones crash into crane in commercial area of Tolleson, AZ

#179

Post by bronco21016 »

I spent some time searching the FAA NOTAM database... https://notams.aim.faa.gov/notamSearch/nsapp.html#/

I can't seem to locate any NOTAMs indicating the presence of the crane. There are NOTAMs for a crane to the NNW of KGRY (Phoenix Goodyear Airport) but Tolleson is to the east of that airport.

Is there a hole in how we're doing NOTAMs if we're expecting to have UAS operating at low altitude away from airports?

Also, what other obstacle data is available? I know the US Gov't aviation maps depict significant man made structures that stick up like towers, windmills, and larger buildings. However, when you look at the NY Heli map, it's clear that not every building in Manhattan is depicted. These are generally low enough that a helo would be operating in see-and-avoid (VFR).

Perhaps there is a new market available for this navigation data...

Re: Two Amazon delivery drones crash into crane in commercial area of Tolleson, AZ

#180

Post by willmadden »

crazygringo wrote: post #102

To be clear, they crashed into the vertical cable hanging down from the end of the crane. Not into the structure of the crane itself. So it's not as bad as "they don't see cranes". But it absolutely raises the question of whether they can see cables , whether hanging from cranes or spanning telephone poles. And honestly, cables are really hard to see in the air. That's literally why high-voltage power lines hang thos…

Correct, never fly underneath anything. Telephone poles? Trees? Assume there is a solid wall between the highest point on any two objects except within a few yards of the delivery spot.
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