Zipline has unveiled the world’s first onboard acoustic detection and avoidance solution for self-driving drones.
June 2022, South San Francisco, California — Zipline, the world leader in rapid logistics, revealed its innovative Detection and Avoidance (DAA) system today. The innovative system, which is a first for the industry, combines onboard acoustic-based technology to enable safe and autonomous flight in complex, even uncontrolled airspaces. This technology is a huge step forward in achieving large-scale commercial autonomous delivery.
Zipline’s innovative DAA system navigates airspace and provides 360-degree awareness with a range of up to 2,000 metres using a set of compact, lightweight acoustic microphones and onboard processors. Aircraft can use this onboard technology to monitor for other aircraft in real time and adjust to changes in their flight path.
“Our DAA system is the holy grail of drone technology,” Zipline co-founder and CTO Keenan Wyrobek stated. “We’ve designed a system that can think for itself and modify in real time, and is agile enough to work with the tiniest of margins.” DAA is the result of hundreds of thousands of flight hours and years of development. It’s a graceful response to the challenges of flying outside visual line of sight in the United States today, not in ten years.”
Existing detection and avoidance systems rely on cumbersome or ground-based optical or electromagnetic awareness systems, which are inefficient for scaling tiny, long-range drone operations. Zipline’s acoustic-based approach blends the light, low-cost hardware required for autonomous drones with the regulatory precision required.
“We envision a world in which physical things may be delivered as swiftly and easily as a text message.” “DAA is the key to scaling rapid delivery in the United States and around the world,” said Keller Rinaudo, Zipline’s founder and CEO. “We see this system being the industry standard for all commercial autonomous aircraft to fly safely in the future.”
The gear has already been integrated into Zipline’s drones and is ready to go once regulatory approval is received.
DAA is being unveiled more than five years after Zipline began commercial operations. A delivery is now completed every four minutes, and the company has surpassed 300,000 commercial flights. DAA is the next step in developing the company’s industry leadership and bringing the promise of instant logistics to the rest of the world.
Concerning Zipline
Zipline is the world’s leader in real-time logistics. Our mission is to instil hope, reform institutions, and serve everyone equally. We created, build, and run the world’s largest automated on-demand delivery service, which has done over 300,000 commercial deliveries holding over 5 million vaccinations and other medical items, reducing delivery emissions by 98 percent when compared to traditional methods. Governments, major brands, and premier health care systems all rely on Zipline.
