By: Nick Gambino
Ok, so here’s a strange one, Amazon has been testing their UAVs’ (unmanned aerial vehicles) response to dogs using…wait for it…a simulated dog. This is according to the International Business Times.
The online merchant behemoth has been hard at work trying to test and perfect the drone delivery system whereby a flying drone would deliver packages right to your doorstep. As one would expect there are plenty of snafu’s and obstacles that could get in the way of a smooth delivery by a non-human.
One thing they’re sorting out is what to do when it encounters a clothes line. Seems silly but it’s definitely in the realm of possibility when you have little drones descending onto people’s property.
Dogs can be an obvious problem as well and seeing as though they can’t exclude dog owners from using the drone delivery service they have to figure it out the best they can. They can’t have the pooch getting ahold of the drone and busting it up or worse getting hurt by the flying messenger. (Read: lawsuit.)
As part of this they are running tests to see how the drone would react when coming face to face with man’s best friend trying to protect its territory.
It’s not clear exactly how they’re going about these trials but one could assume a simulated dog would be some sort of robot dog. Either that or they strapped a big furry costume on an employee and told him to run back and forth and bark and attempt to bite the drone. Though I’m really hoping it’s the robot dog.
Well, whatever it is they’re performing these tests in secret locations around the world so it’s unlikely we’re going to get a look at the obviously, most definitely, without-a-doubt robotic dog.
But hey maybe if the drone delivery system never takes off they can patent the robot dog and sell them to those allergic to real dogs. Kind of a Westworld: Canine Edition situation.
If not a robot dog then what else could they be using to simulate a dog? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Nick Gambino is a regular script writer and tech beat reporter for NewsWatch. He lives in Northern Virginia with his wife and daughter.
