

Dominos tested delivering pizza by drone [video] - Grovara123
http://videos.digg.com/post/52072616644/dominos-tested-delivering-pizza-by-drone

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recuter
This seems like a marketing stunt more than anything.

Drones would be cost effective if they were at least somehow semi-automated,
otherwise there is an endless supply of teenagers and people willing to use
scooters to do this at minimum wage. Drone pilots/operators are presumably
more skilled and would have higher hourly wages.

It seems like 'self piloting drones' > 'self driving cars' in complexity. So
we aren't quite there yet.

I would also imagine that once it becomes even remotely technologically viable
it will be snuffed out by legislation. But perhaps one day.. :)

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Zarathust
I'm really not that sure that drones like the one in the video are more
complicated than self driving cars. Self driving cars have to handle a lot of
external stimulus, like other cars, road regulations and thrust/steering
balances on the road. This helicopter is quite free to move and can be
"easily" tracked by gps or such. Only the remote landing can be tricky
depending on the situation.

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bri3d
I agree that a self-driving car is much harder on the basis that it has to
handle other cars alone.

With that being said, a small drone like this is harder than it looks for a
couple reasons.

First, there's not enough payload capacity for a good, accurate IMU. You're
stuck using lightweight but awfully noisy MEMS gyros and accelerometers along
with drifty barometers.

Plus, there's not enough payload capacity for an off the shelf LIDAR or other
long-range depth sensing. That means detecting obstacles needs to be delegated
to 2D imagers plus CV algorithms, with some short-range depth sensing. IR ToF
like a Kinect 2 or even a grid-based approach like a Kinect 1 might work in a
favorable environment, but I wouldn't trust it outdoors even at close range.

If I had to build a pizza-delivery drone, I'd use a bottom-facing camera like
the AR.Drone does to try to provide a position reference independent of the
bad MEMS gear, and I'd use CV algorithms combined with a last-ditch short-
range obstacle sensor (like IR or ultrasound) to attempt to avoid obstacles.
Once I got to the destination, I'd delegate landing to a pilot, since "finding
the front door" is a surprisingly hard problem.

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baddox
Multicopters like the one in the video have no trouble reaching _much_ higher
altitudes, where obstacles would likely be fewer and easier to detect. Given a
specific delivery area, a reasonable cruising altitude could be preconfigured
and the flight could probably be navigated by GPS with no CV whatsoever. Then,
like you say, a human pilot could handle the landing and subsequent take-off.

The location of the pizzeria could even be chosen such that take-offs and
landings at that end of the trip could be entirely automated, by GPS or
perhaps with some much more basic CV.

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jryce
If I was homeless in that area I'd start hunting pizza drones for food. I also
thought they were automating it instead.

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dsl
The "drone" itself is a DJI S800 and not autonomous in any way. It is
technically a Remotely Operated Aircraft (ROA), so a fancy RC helicopter.

It looks like this was filmed in the UK (from the .co.uk address on the side
of the box). Had it been filmed in the US, they could run into serious legal
problems for not having a Special Airworthiness Certificate from the FAA for
commercial operation.

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tantalor
Generally "drone" refers to "unmanned aerial vehicle" (UAV), not necessarily
autonomous.

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scheff
I would have thought that the obvious advantage of this over scooter-kid is
the time saving over someone in traffic. It would take potentially half the
time to deliver to some areas by air. With the major side benefit that your
pizza is less soggy when it arrives, which means a noticeable improvement in
product quality.

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backwardm
It's a cool idea. I'm sure some would be tempted to capture and steal the
drones as they made delivery—they can't be cheap. It will become the modern
day equivalent of stealing a plastic milk cart—only you won't be building ugly
book shelves with the drones. :)

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frou_dh
It'd be cooler if someone launched their own drone with a grabbing arm and
swiped the pizza mid-air.

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bernatfp
Who cares if it is a commercial. People need to realize drones can be used for
other stuff than military. Maybe this ad will serve as a good tool to
democratize drones as that "Pizza for Bitcoin" website did for Bitcoin, even
if it's just a small step.

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Giszmo
I am 100% sure that automatically landing a pizza in your front yard will be
technically feasible long before the theft rate of these neat gadgets would
drop to an acceptable rate. Maybe the first copters will parachute the pizzas
:)

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Ilmesnkie_Jones
How is the drone going to open the door of my apartment building and bring the
pizza upstairs (the most important part of the delivery)?

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wklauss
Do you have a window? Problem solved.

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jlgreco
I'm still holding out hope for Tacocopter.

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imjared
Will the burrito bomber suffice?
<http://www.darwinaerospace.com/burritobomber>

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brd
I thought drones were banned from commercial use?

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heurist
If this were an actual service how would they handle people interfering with
the drone en route or during the delivery?

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escaped_hn
The same way you prevent people from interfering with pizza delivery people's
cars. Legal repercussions.

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zimpenfish
Not to me - my local Dominos has mysteriously stopped taking online orders
"for the time being".

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theschnabler
if i had any money, i'm quite sure i'd consider investing into something drone
related (commercial). almost positive these things will become a huge part of
our everyday life/society in the future. (hopefully for the better)

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coryl
Looks to be more of a viral video ad, but still pretty cool.

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reductive
This is a commercial.

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getglue
Digg is still alive?

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phyalow
I tried to sign in with my account from circa 2005 - it doesn't work. So Digg
remains dead to me.

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_jmar777
Woah... digg.

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EGreg
Is this for real?

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jka
To put my slightly cynical hat on (one of my favourite hats) - the viral
marketing video space is a popular one at the moment, since everyone knows how
quickly video content can spread - especially when it's entertaining and/or
novel, and marketers would love to reach those kind of audience sizes with
their brands.

There are also a great number of video producers out there - often relatively
young folks who keep in tune with what's popular online, stay current on
technology trends, and would love to earn their income by creating and selling
videos which advertise brands (Dominos) and products.

So, these folks - their raison d'être is to produce videos which promote a
brand and spread virally - and to achieve that, they need to 'feel' unique,
but the catch is that they generally need to display the branding quite
prominently in the content.

Here's a similar situation: <http://www.livescience.com/23150-seagull-video-
hoax.html>

To me, I'd suspect both are viral marketing, if well disguised - and even if
they're not, I'd suspect that viral video marketers are going to become more
sophisticated at making videos 'appear' to be genuine / user-generated / found
footage.

One question that springs to mind with this one is: if Dominos were beta-
testing this, would they have the operator wear the Dominos delivery uniform?

Either way, they're fun to watch.

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trotsky
so do they get paid to run ads like that, or are they just stooges the same as
reddit?

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yoster
I can imagine some idiot running right into the propellers on that drone. I
can also see the million dollar settlement next.

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joshrotenberg
Can they get the drones to make a pizza that doesn't suck, too? Cuz that might
be a better use of the tech.

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joshrotenberg
Sheesh, downvotes! You guys must love their pizza.

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zalzane
it has nothing to do with their pizza, people just thought your comment wasn't
constructive

