A Mexican fast food chain called Guzman y Gomez (GYG) and Project Wing teamed up to test drone assisted food deliveries in Australia last September, according to GYG’s blog. A YouTube video was released on October 16, 2017, showing GYG delivering burritos by drone. Project Wing regarded GYG as their first real testing partner since they are now dropping off food directly onto customer’s yards in Royalla, Australia.
Pre-selected testers in Royalla can order burritos, bowls, guacamole and chips up to 2.2 pounds through the Project Wing app on their smartphone. A local GYG food truck with a nickname of Drone Mothership would then cook and package the food into a specially designed Project Wing box. The launch pad where the delivery drone waits is used also as a charger. The drone needs to hover first about 16 feet before it drops a hook for the packaged food. Once the food is attached to the drone, the line gets reeled in like a fishing rod. Project Wing’s drone can fly packages as fast as 74.6 mph within a range of 6.2 miles. Once it arrives at its destination, all the drone has to do is drop its line with the food package and fly back to the launch pad.
Burritos by Drone Data
The test trail is more than just burritos by drone deliveries; data will be collected to see just how viable Project Wing’s system is. The more the drone identifies obstacles with its sensors, the smarter it will become for future drone deliveries. GYG has offered free drone assisted deliveries for their select customers, and it will be available for a few months, according to GYG’s blog. Even though the shipping is free, testers will still have to pay for their food.
“We want to learn how much notice to give them for a drone’s arrival so that they can cook, pack, and load it in one well-timed workflow,” said James Ryan Burgess, co-leader of Project Wing.
Project Wing chose the outskirts of Australia because residences travelled an average of 40 minutes just to get groceries, according to Project Wing’s blog. Drone assisted deliveries can deliver items almost anywhere within minutes from its launch site. This saves customers time and money. The data collected by Project Wing in GYG’s test trail will be used to optimize a delivery network for future drone deliveries.
