Amazon has patented a system where its delivery vans could deploy and control a fleet of robots and drones to deliver goods.
In an application to the United States Patent and Trademark Office, Amazon has laid out its plan for primary vehicles featuring cameras and sensors to transmit instructions to secondary vehicles for personal deliveries.
The concept would see Amazon vans drive to the destination, park up and then send and control a delivery robot to drop off the parcel.
Rather than load each robot with its own sensors and pathfinding hardware, that can be outsourced to equipment in the van.
Cameras, radar, sonar, lidar, or other location sensors can analyse the best path for the robot to take, then beam the instructions to it wirelessly.
The van’s camera systems will be able to track the mobile robot, and if need be, recalculate new paths or speeds to help the robot navigate obstacles.
After the drop-off has been made, the van can then instruct the drone on how to get back.
The concept could one day see one delivery van, filled with secondary delivery vehicles, deploying both robots and drones to complete a number of delivery drop-offs.
Like other patents, there is no guarantee this system will be approved.
