Mon, Jan 02, 2017
Also Would Protect Against Bows And Arrows
If you're concerned that a drone carrying your package from Amazon.com might be shot down by someone using a bow and arrow ... well, you can place that on your list of things to not be very worried about.
The e-tail giant has published a patent filed in 2014 that outlines their countermeasure plans for everything from signal jamming to a possible bow and arrow attack. according to a report from GeekWire.
The "compromise system" patented by Amazon's engineers would use multiple sensors that would orient the aircraft's position based on the sun. The patent states that the system is designed to prevent the aircraft from being "confused" by things like lightning, or the muzzle flash of a gun.
There is alow a network that would allow the company's aircraft to check with each other and other sources such as satellites to verify their programming. Discrepancies would be resolved through a majority opinion of the sources. It even protects the aircraft from electronic jamming of the communications systems. If everything fails, the aircraft are programmed to land and transmit their location to their home base.
Amazon also lays out a scenario where the aircraft will protect itself from threats from the ground. "The compromise module detects the presence of the arrow and generates the UAV compromise data indicating that a threat exists that may compromise the UAV.
“The fail-safe module terminates the navigation to the first computing device, and the fail-safe module directs the UAV towards the ground. In some implementations, the fail-safe module may be configured to direct the UAV to take evasive maneuvers, navigate to a safe landing or parking zone for inspect, and so forth," according to the patent. The system would send out an alert about the location of the threat so that authorities could try to locate the drone and the threat.
About the only thing that isn't anticipated is attacks from birds of prey, according to GeekWire. But that's probably on the drawing board.
(Image from Amazon patent)
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