Zipline - How Rwanda Built A Drone Delivery Service

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Strong rec zx10rse · 2023-09 · on “FAA Authorizes Zipline to Deliver Commercial Packages Using Drones”

One of my favorite companies since I heard about them - [this video] I personally believe this is the way forward, like in a star wars movie full of a plethora of "dumb" robots who have a specific work task, and are almost self sufficient. Like you have a robot that fix delivery drones, a robot that assembles them, and etc. Drones will be also much better at avoiding obstacles, and they will be much more efficient than cars. I am not really sure why there isn't more competition in this market. I believe they can build an autonomous delivery hub, and factory. I wish them all the best.

Recommends 1023bytes · 2019-08 · on “Swiss Post Suspends Drone Delivery Service After Second Crash”

Delivery drones are definitely unnecessary in densely populated areas. It's cool and futuristic, but it's not economical at all, it's very unsafe and also loud. However it's a wonderful thing for rural places with poor infrastructure. For example Zipline in Rwanda, one of the most interesting solutions an engineering perspective too: [this video]

Recommends Fabricio20 · 2019-09 · on “Google Wing Launching US Drone Deliveries with FedEx, Walgreens”

The catapult launches the drones into the air, which then parachute the package to the location. Real Engineering [1] and Wendover Productions [2] have really nice videos about their system currently deployed in Rwanda. [1]: [this video] [2]: [LINK]

Recommends ViralBShah · 2020-06 · on “Zipline: Drone delivery of medical supplies”

I learnt about Zipline in a talk at JuliaCon by Tucker McClure who spoke about how they use Julia for designing and tuning their aircraft. Had the great fortune of spending an evening at the conference to learn more about the company itself, how it got started and their use of Julia. Recommend the 2019 JuliaCon video on how Zipline uses Julia for vehicle simulation: [LINK] And this video by Real Engineering that does a great job of explaining how the whole thing works: [this video]

Recommends RheingoldRiver · 2021-08 · on “The slow collapse of Amazon’s drone delivery dream”

flyzipline is so cool! I saw an AMA they did on reddit a while ago and their tech for the thing landing where it hooks onto the the wire is really neat! [this video]

Recommends matkoniecz · 2021-08 · on “The slow collapse of Amazon’s drone delivery dream”

> Even if they're literally worse at everything than the alternatives, cost more, are less reliable, etc. Drones may be better for very quick delivery or where road network is very poor. See [LINK] with amazing [this video] (delivery of medical supplies in Rwanda) and mentions ship-to-ship transport.

Recommends jazzyjackson · 2021-08 · on “Police helicopter's 100mph chase with 'super sophisticated' drone near Tucson”

I was also going to mention zipline in Rwanda, last video I saw was two years ago but it looks like they’re doing well enough to be hiring interns in San Fran. Really cool tech, the way they have a sort of assembly line for getting ready-to-fly parts on the package in the space of minutes - these are life and death deliveries out here! [this video] [LINK]

Recommends SPBS · 2022-04 · on “Drones have transformed blood delivery in Rwanda”

For those blocked by a paywall, Real Engineering did a video on it [ [this video] ]. The most interesting aspects to me were: - The drone is not a quadcopter, they are too inefficient. Mini plane design. - GPS device is directly attached to the swappable battery unit to ensure it is always connected to a satellite, eliminating satellite connection delays when the drone powers up. - It is launched into a sky by a powered rail. It doesn't need to land to deliver the goods, the items get parachuted down. No infrastructure needed on the receiving end, the item just drops from the sky. - For landing the drone flies past an aircraft arresting wire while hooking onto it which decelerates it and causes i