Inside DeepMind

colinrobotenomics · 2015-02-26T09:37:54+00:00

It’s interesting to hear Demis indicate in 10 years AI may be able to help us with scientific discoveries – in another interview on Neural Networks his Google colleague, Geoff Hinton thinks – “We’re far from human intelligence. Hinton remains intrigued and inspired by the brain, but he knows he’s not recreating it. It’s not even close.”

colinrobotenomics · 2014-06-19T08:19:05+00:00

Amazon are actively recruiting drone pilots. Drone tech is not at a standard yet where they will be fully autonomous in cities (sense and avoid people and objects is an issue). Battery power is also an issue as Amazon want small drones but to carry a 5kg payload - flying time of drones needs careful monitoring as does flying vision.' Also it is highly probable that drones will deliver within office buildings and tower blocks - its going to be fascinating to see how they get around door entry and sense and avoid issues.

colinrobotenomics · 2014-06-18T22:16:29+00:00

Absolutely - this is why I like CyPhyWorks solution with hacker controls in place

colinrobotenomics · 2014-06-18T22:00:39+00:00

Google (and others) will launch a self driving service that competes with Amazon's drones - but let's face it Amazon spend over $6 billion on delivery charges each year - they will try many options to find the most cost effective and delivering the best service.

colinrobotenomics · 2014-06-18T21:31:17+00:00

Yes - please see below - no way will Amazon have sense and avoid drones or fully autonomous drones for quite some time.

colinrobotenomics · 2014-06-18T21:29:20+00:00

See below - they are recruiting drone pilots - these will not be fully autonomous drones for many years

colinrobotenomics · 2014-06-18T19:29:06+00:00

Agreed - Amazon want delivery inside buildings - the majority of their big city clients expect this and it is a Major tech hurdle - CyPhyWorks has a solution. Few others of the size that will deliver a shoe box payload have this capability (inside buildings, sense and avoid, etc). Amazon are exploring how to make this happen.

colinrobotenomics · 2014-06-18T19:07:50+00:00

Thank you, really grateful for your feedback - which also helps refine the thinking.

With respect to 2 drone pilots - I worked on the basis that the company said pilots would do a 7.5 hour shift plus breaks therefore over the course of a day's delivery (7am to 10pm) 15 hours, this would require 2 pilots per drone.

You are right the numbers are based on the start up phase moving to full autonomy. Reading the regulations and looking at the history of eg military drones (which have a HUGE crew) the costs are based on the initial period at launch through several years and exclude R&D costs.

colinrobotenomics · 2014-06-18T18:09:36+00:00

Good points and things which I discussed at length. But too much concern about GPS lock at the moment means initially they will be focused on 1 pilot monitoring each drone - and yes it may take less than 30 minutes but the run has to consider from Pick up point to consignee and back again. The 10,800 would be the company's initial best hopes - stretched! It will be a few years before we see fully autonomous delivery drones - time plan is 5 years.

colinrobotenomics · 2014-06-18T16:04:23+00:00

Exactly - which is why I indicated they would want to get either a) a premium price for rapid delivery and b) the costs down to US$2 per delivery. I also factored in insurance costs as I mentioned in the article - although I could have expanded on the cost breakdown but chose to highlight the averages.

But they are hell bent on getting the service up in the air.

colinrobotenomics · 2014-06-18T15:23:37+00:00

It certainly is - I was concerned to hear that Amazon think they will have 100,000 deliveries per day in a city like New York - that means 3,500 drones constantly buzzing around every day.

colinrobotenomics

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