Original: drone express: hanging.

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Will such a "sci-fi scene" soon become a reality by sending express delivery by unmanned aircraft?

Following the express delivery companies UPS, SF Express and Amazon, the Internet giant Google also announced at the end of August 20 14 that it had spent two years secretly developing a drone express delivery system, which Google called "Wing Plan".

However, in the eyes of some domestic express delivery industry peers, it is just a hype for companies such as SF to test the water drone express. Deng Bin, executive general manager of Fengda Express, holds this view. He believes that for a long time, it will be difficult for drones to send express delivery instead of people.

Zhao Hui, a researcher at the Electronic Science Research Institute of China Electronics Technology Group, said in an interview with the reporter of Caijing National Weekly that it is easy to transport a small number of lighter items by drones and fly point-to-point at close range. However, in order to build a UAV express network and realize the large-scale replacement of human beings by UAVs, there are still problems such as improving the reliability of UAVs, developing a new generation of air traffic control technology and networking technology, and overcoming obstacles in policies and regulations.

Zhao Hui predicted that it will take 5~ 10 years for the prototype of UAV express network to appear in Europe and America, and it may take longer in China.

Google leads

Imagine that you open the window of your home and a drone just stops outside the window. You take the goods you bought from the drone, then take out your mobile phone to confirm the receipt, and the drone slowly flies away to find the next customer.

Or, in the afternoon, you will go to a teahouse to communicate with customers, and there is a courier to deliver. You inform the courier company in advance, let the drone command center change the delivery route, and inform the drone to send the courier to the teahouse.

For the early appearance of this future scene, R&D teams of companies such as Google and SF are working hard.

"Google is the first company to develop a drone express delivery system. At present, Google uses the most advanced airborne platform in the process of testing drone express delivery. " Zhao Hui said.

According to the classification of take-off and landing and flight modes, at present, aircraft can be roughly divided into three types: fixed-wing aircraft, rotorcraft (namely helicopters) and vertical take-off and landing aircraft. Fixed-wing aircraft is characterized by fast flight and low fuel consumption, but it requires high landing runway. Rotorcraft (helicopter) has low requirements for landing sites and can hover in the air, but it consumes high fuel and flies slowly. Vertical takeoff and landing aircraft can take off and land vertically during takeoff and landing, then fly in the air and then switch to fixed-wing mode.

Zhao Hui introduced that Google used the tailstock vertical take-off and landing unmanned aircraft. When taking off, the tail landed and the fuselage stood upright. After vertical take-off and landing, the fuselage rotates slightly and turns into a horizontal fixed-wing flight state, which can realize low-cost and long-term flight.

Amazon and SF previously used multi-rotor aircraft (a type of helicopter) during the test flight, and the transportation cost was high. The experimental data show that the energy consumption of fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters is four times that of fixed-wing aircraft when transporting the same weight.

"Multi-rotor aircraft are everywhere, and many domestic enterprises can build them; However, the development of VTOL aircraft is more difficult. At present, only AVIC Chengdu Aircraft Design and Research Institute has trial-produced vertical take-off and landing aircraft, which can be used for civilian use. " Zhao Hui said.

A staff member of SF Express Brand Management Center, who asked not to be named, told the reporter that SF Express began to test the UAV project from 20 13, which was independently developed by SF Express, and the research and development work is still continuing.

Restriction bottleneck

Dr. Luan Dalong, an aviation expert at Beijing Academy of Military Sciences, believes that there is still no mass-produced drone with reliable performance that can be used for express delivery. UAV is used for express delivery, and its safety needs to be improved.

Zhao Hui also told reporters that the hovering VTOL aircraft is more suitable for express drones, but at present, its reliability is not high, especially its wind resistance is poor. Bad weather such as strong wind can't be used.

In addition to improving the performance and safety of vehicles, it is also very important to monitor unmanned aerial vehicles in real time. If the drones of SF, Amazon and other companies fly over the same city, how to identify them? How to prevent them from colliding or colliding? These problems need a new generation of air traffic control system to complete.

Zhao Hui introduced that the air traffic control technology currently adopted by civil aviation mainly adopts primary surveillance radar and secondary radar. In a large number of areas, the secondary radar sends out inquiry information, and the civil aircraft responds after receiving it. This kind of air traffic control is passive, which can no longer meet the explosive development needs of the civil aviation market (including transport aviation and general aviation) in recent years, let alone monitor the flight of unmanned aerial vehicles.

The core of the new generation air traffic control system is the 4D track technology, which accurately describes the spatial position (longitude, latitude and altitude) and time information of each point in the aircraft track to meet the future air traffic management under the conditions of large flow, high density and small interval.

Many countries and regions have begun to develop the next generation air management system.

In 2004, the European Union european aviation safety agency (EASA) launched the "Single European Union Air Traffic Control (SESAR) Plan", and it is planned to implement the 4D rail air traffic control mode in Europe from 20 18. At present, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has also started the research on the next generation air traffic control system (NEXTGEN) for 2025, and requires all aircraft in the United States to install ADS-B system (broadcast automatic surveillance system) in 2020, so as to implement air surveillance more effectively.

In China, the research and development projects of the National High-tech Research and Development Plan (863 Plan) also include the research and development of high-performance 4D orbit technology based on multivariate data.

After realizing the 4D flight path technology, the aircraft can exchange data through the air traffic control center and realize the networking of the aircraft. Zhao Hui introduced that in the future, aircraft can exchange registration information, speed direction, and even fuel (or electricity), cargo capacity, operation status, destination and other information. Even without going through the air traffic control center, this will be more conducive to promoting the work of the drone express network.

Zhao Hui introduced that Google is developing computer networking, car networking and driverless car technology. Among them, data link technology, that is, how to realize large-scale data transmission, is the key to research and development.

Luan Dalong believes that the country has not yet issued regulatory policies and regulations, which will also affect the development of drone freight. UAV express delivery belongs to the category of general aviation. In July this year, the National Air Traffic Control Commission issued the draft of "Regulations on the Management and Use of Low-altitude Airspace (Trial)" for comments. The regulatory policy of general aviation manned aircraft has not yet been implemented, and now there is the problem of drones. He lamented that technology developed so fast that the formulation of national policies and regulations could not keep up with the pace of technological development.

Zhao Hui believes that when there are safe and reliable UAVs and effective air traffic control systems, it will not be a problem to introduce relevant management systems. After these, the express delivery industry still needs to consider the cost of using drones to deliver goods. First, it can provide drone services for high-end customers or people with special timeliness requirements for rapid delivery and reception, and then gradually promote them.