By late last month, Florida’s daily Covid-19 case count had increased fivefold, causing officials to close beaches for the Fourth of July weekend and leading medical practitioners to advise the elderly to remain at home. For the state’s 4.9 million seniors (one in five residents), pharmacies are now getting creative in order to deliver prescription and over-the-counter essentials to the at-risk population.

到上月底，美国佛罗里达州的日常Covid-19情况下数量已经增长了五倍 ，导致官员关闭海滩为7月4日周末和领先的医疗从业者劝老人留在家里。 对于该州的490万老年人 (五分之一的居民)，药房现在正变得更具创意，以便为处于危险中的人群提供处方药和非处方药。

Responding to this need in May, CVS pharmacy launched a prescription medication delivery service by aerial drone to a retirement community in Florida. The pharmacy giant’s delivery in The Villages (also the largest retirement community in the United States) was supported by UPS using Matternet M2 autonomous drones.

为了应对这一需求在五月，CVS pH值rmacy推出了处方药物递送服务由空中无人驾驶飞机在佛罗里达州的退休社区。 这家药店巨头在The Villages(也是美国最大的退休社区)的交付得到UPS使用Matternet M2自主无人机的支持。

According to a May 12 company press release, the “technology enabled the first contactless delivery to fight COVID-19 with UPS, transporting items from CVS.” The delivery in Florida began under the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) Part 107 rules, which provide authority to operate through the pandemic and explore ongoing needs.

根据公司 5月12日的新闻稿 ，“该技术使首个非接触式交付能够与UPS对抗COVID-19，从CVS运送物品。” 在佛罗里达州的交付始于美国联邦航空管理局(FAA)第107部分的规定，该规定提供了通过大流行进行运营并探究持续需求的权限。

Drone technology has been used in a variety of scenarios lately: to deliver Covid-19 tests in Ghana, to ensure children have enough library books for summer reading, and to enforce social distancing with loudspeakers from the Daytona Beach police department.

无人机技术最近已用于多种情况： 在加纳进行Covid-19测试 ，确保儿童拥有足够的图书馆书籍以供夏季阅读 ，并使用代托纳比奇警察局的扬声器加强与社会的距离。

The UPS delivery in Florida expands on tests pilots conducted in Cary, North Carolina, in November 2019 in which UPS completed 1,500 drone deliveries for WakeMed Hospital and its first successful revenue-generating residential delivery of CVS prescriptions. For the CVS delivery, the drone hovered 20 feet above the ground at people’s homes as packages were lowered by a cable and winch. Though the drones flew autonomously, they were monitored by a remote operator.

佛罗里达州的UPS交付是在2019年11月在北卡罗来纳州卡里进行的测试飞行员的基础上扩大的，在该试点中，UPS为WakeMed医院完成了1,500架无人机交付，并且首次成功实现了居民收入的CVS处方交付。 对于CVS交付，由于包裹被电缆和绞车放下，无人机在人们家中悬停在离地面20英尺的位置。 尽管这些无人机是自动飞行的，但仍由远程操作员进行监视。

Though narrowly focused drone test flights are encouraging, Jeff Bezos in 2013 promised us wide-scale retail goods deliveries by 2018, and that still hasn’t happened. Even if his “octocopter” had materialized, it would have been met with the same challenges and likely would have looked as uninspiring as those CVS and the Daytona Beach PD drones: limited to short, human-assisted flight distances and five-pound payloads.

尽管专注于狭窄的无人机测试飞行令人鼓舞，但杰夫·贝佐斯(Jeff Bezos)在2013年向我们承诺， 到2018年我们将实现大规模零售商品交付 ，但这仍然没有实现。 即使他的“八轴飞行器”实现了，也将面临同样的挑战，并且看起来像那些CVS和Daytona Beach PD无人机一样令人沮丧：仅限于人为辅助的短飞行距离和五磅有效载荷。

The drone flights at The Villages will not deliver packages directly to the doorstep without human supervision. They will be limited to one-half mile, to a location near the community where a UPS ground vehicle will pick up the packages and hand-deliver them to residents.

在乡村的无人机飞行不会 直接将包裹运送到门口，无需人工监督。 他们将被限制在半英里的距离内 UPS地面车辆将捡起包裹并将其手动交付给居民的社区。

Due to their short flight time, weight restrictions, and human oversight, it isn’t likely that drones will be ferrying your Costco-purchased, bulk-sized, 30-pound drum of peanut butter home any time soon. But drones might still be having their moment. Just not in the way we thought.

由于飞行时间短，重量限制和人为疏忽，无人机不太可能在短期内将Costco购买的散装30磅花生酱桶运送到您的家中。 但是无人机可能仍在发挥作用。 只是不像我们想的那样。

慢慢离开地面 (Slowly getting off the ground)

Walgreens began trials of its drone service delivery program in northern Virginia last October, making it the first large retailer to do so. In contrast to CVS, prescriptions aren’t available in its pilot. But it does include over-the-counter medicine as well as food and beverage convenience items. Its program uses Alphabet’s Wing service, which earned FAA certification to operate as an airline. That FAA designation won’t allow them to carry actual pharmacists with Tylenol on the tiny machines, but it instead allows Wing to operate as a commercial service and charge businesses for the transport of goods.

去年10月，沃尔格林(Walgreens)在弗吉尼亚北部开始了其无人机服务交付计划的试用，这使其成为第一家这样做的大型零售商。 与CVS相比，它的试用版中没有处方。 但它确实包括非处方药以及食品和饮料便利品。 它的计划使用Alphabet的Wing服务，该服务获得了FAA认证 ，可以作为航空公司运营。 FAA的名称不允许他们在微型机器上携带真正的药剂师使用Tylenol，而是允许Wing作为商业服务运营并向企业收取货物运输费用。

It’s been a measured path for the drone service. In 2017, Wing first tested burrito delivery at Virginia Tech University, but deliveries were sent to an open field rather than an address. Wing spent the following year in Australia expanding the products it delivered from burritos to gelato, coffee, and medication. (Assuming the medicine included antacid tablets, it’s possible they may have been used in that order.)

这是无人机服务的评估路径。 2017年，Wing首次在弗吉尼亚理工大学测试了墨西哥卷饼的送达 ，但将送达的玉米饼发送到了一个空地而不是一个地址。 第二年，Wing在澳大利亚扩展了从墨西哥卷饼到冰淇淋，咖啡和药物的产品范围 。 (假设该药物包含抗酸药片，则可能已经按照该顺序使用了它们。)

To operate profitably at scale, aerial drones will need to pilot without human supervision.

为了大规模运营，空中无人机将需要在没有人工监督的情况下进行驾驶。

The real indigestion for UPS to overcome, however, was the Australian Civil Aviation Safety Authority’s safety certifications, which allowed the Wing drones to fly closer to people than usually allowed. UPS had to achieve similar approvals from the FAA in 2019 prior to their trial flights.

然而，UPS真正的消化不良是澳大利亚民航安全局的安全认证，该认证使机翼无人机比平时所允许的飞行距离更近。 UPS必须在2019年进行试飞之前获得FAA的类似批准。

Once drones are cleared for takeoff, the next consideration is landing, as customers need sizable space for package deliveries. To assist the landing, Amazon’s Prime Air deliveries require their shoppers to place a landing mat on their lawn.

清除无人机以供起飞后，下一个考虑因素是降落，因为客户需要足够的空间来运送包裹。 为了协助降落，亚马逊的Prime Air送货要求购物者将降落垫放在他们的草坪上。

Four years after this promotional video from 2016 for Amazon’s initial delivery in England, the company hasn’t publicly expanded on this initial test. Traveling under 400 feet and guided by GPS, the drone delivers a bag of popcorn and an Amazon Fire TV Stick to a home resting on a vast farm. Though movies and a snack make for good promotion, reality casts serious doubts on the market fit. There were only two identified beta customers at the time, and from the video, one appears to have at least 50 acres of open land, seriously limiting the market demographic. There haven’t been many more updates to the Amazon Prime Air page since the inaugural flight.

从2016年开始在亚马逊在英国首次交付的宣传视频四年之后，该公司尚未公开扩展此初始测试。 这架无人机在400英尺以下的高度行进，在GPS的引导下，将一袋爆米花和一台亚马逊消防电视棒运送到一个坐落在广阔农场上的房屋中。 尽管电影和零食有利于促销，但现实对市场的适合度却产生了严重的怀疑。 当时只有两个确定的beta客户，从视频中可以看到，一个似乎拥有至少50英亩的空地，严重限制了市场人口。 自首飞以来，没有更多的Amazon Prime Air页面更新。

The last mile for all drone companies to overcome is the operational cost. Though the UPS drone delivery service flies autonomously for CVS, it still required human monitoring and a local van for the final feet of delivery to the doorstep during the trial phase. To operate profitably at scale, aerial drones will need to pilot without human supervision.

所有无人机公司要克服的最后一英里是运营成本。 尽管UPS无人机交付服务自动飞往CVS，但在试验阶段 ，仍然需要人工监控和当地面包车才能将最后一英尺交付到家门口。 为了大规模运营，空中无人机将需要在没有人工监督的情况下进行驾驶。

That’s precisely what UPS hopes to achieve with an eventual massive autonomous drone fleet under its UPS Flight Forward Program. In a press release, UPS claims it is the first company to achieve the FAA’s highest certification, which would allow drones to operate remotely and out of a human operator’s line of sight, at night, and with cargo weighing more than 55 pounds. Perhaps that 30-pound drum of peanut butter is in my future.

这正是UPS希望通过其UPS飞行前锋计划最终拥有庞大的无人驾驶无人机机队实现的目标。 在一份新闻稿中 ，UPS声称它是第一家获得FAA最高认证的公司，该认证将使无人机能够在夜间，超出人类操作员的视线范围内进行远程操作，并且重量超过55磅。 也许30磅重的花生酱桶就在我的未来。

准备起飞—在室内吗？ (Ready for takeoff — indoors?)

All those challenges aside, aerial drones may have a significant role to play in retail. Literally, inside of retail. Pensa Systems aims to do just that with an autonomous aerial drone that zips through grocery store aisles scanning dry goods shelves and beverage coolers to precisely locate and count inventory. The Austin-based company raised $10 million last November, in part from ZX Ventures, the investment arm of Anheuser-Busch InBev. This comes as little surprise as consumer packaged goods (CPG) brands typically invest in retailer-supported systems like refrigerated coolers, marketing, promotions, and field labor to monitor inventory.

除了所有这些挑战，空中无人机可能在零售业中扮演重要角色。 从字面上看 零售。 Pensa Systems的目标是使用自动空中无人机来完成此任务，该无人机可以穿过杂货店的过道，扫描干货货架和饮料冷却器以精确定位和盘点库存。 这家位于奥斯汀的公司去年11月筹集了1000万美元 ，部分资金来自百威英博(Anheuser-Busch InBev)的投资部门ZX Ventures。 毫不奇怪，因为消费者包装商品(CPG)品牌通常会在零售商支持的系统中进行投资，例如冷藏冷却器，市场营销，促销和现场劳动力来监控库存。

With buy-online-pick-up-in-store (BOPIS) on the rise and stock levels oscillating daily on essential goods, the company’s claim of 98% inventory scanning accuracy (per the Pensa website) could help retailers keep shelves filled.

随着店内网上提货(BOPIS)的增加和基本商品的每日库存水平的波动，该公司声称具有98％的库存扫描准确性(根据Pensa网站)的说法可以帮助零售商保持货架空缺。

Even as businesses reopen, retailers are adapting to new customer behaviors that will stick. Click-and-collect sales will continue through the end of 2020 to the tune of $74 billion, according to eMarketer. To keep up, employers have been ramping up: Walmart plans for 200,000 additional workers, and CVS will add 50,000. Click-and-collect concierge service Instacart also announced massive hiring — 550,000 workers for April and May.

即使企业重新营业，零售商也将适应新的顾客行为。 根据eMarketer的数据 ，点击收集的销售额将持续到2020年底，达到740亿美元。 为了跟上步伐，雇主一直在努力：沃尔玛计划增加200,000名工人 ，而CVS将增加50,000名 。 点击收集的礼宾服务公司Instacart还宣布了大规模招聘计划，4月和5月有55万名工人。

With all of that hiring comes the next challenge: providing associates safe access so they can work efficiently while maintaining social distancing mandates. In-store aerial systems such as Pensa’s might alleviate those concerns. When I visited its exhibit at the National Retail Federation Show in January, representatives claimed the nearly silent drone could be used unobtrusively, even skipping occupied aisles so as not to spook customers during shopping trips. This same capability might help to balance the workload between order-pickers completing orders and drones checking for stock counts and validating beef expiration dates in the meat department.

在所有这些招聘工作的同时，下一个挑战是：为员工提供安全的访问权限，以便他们可以有效地工作，同时保持与社会保持距离的职责。 诸如Pensa的店内天线系统可能会减轻这些担忧。 当我在一月份在美国全国零售联合会展上参观其展品时，代表们声称几乎安静的无人机可以毫不费力地使用，甚至跳过占用的过道，以免在购物途中吓到顾客。 这种相同的功能可能有助于平衡拣选人员完成订单和无人机之间的工作量，以检查存货数量并在肉类部门中验证牛肉的有效期。

自动驾驶汽车，步履缓慢 (Autonomous vehicles, a slow roll to your doorstep)

Amazon clearly sees a future in vehicles for the long haul of cargo transport to distribution centers given its recent financial investment in autonomous technology company Aurora, its plans to deploy 100,000 electric trucks from Rivian, and its recently announced $1.2 billion acquisition of self-driving taxi company Zoox. But the final mile of package delivery from distribution centers to doorsteps will require cost-efficient miniature autonomous rolling cargo carriers.

鉴于其最近对自动驾驶技术公司Aurora的财务投资 ，计划从Rivian部署100,000辆电动卡车以及最近宣布以12亿美元收购自动驾驶出租车的计划，亚马逊显然看到了用于长途运输到配送中心的车辆的未来。 Zoox公司。 但是，从配送中心到家门口的包裹交付的最后一英里将需要具有成本效益的微型自动滚动货物运输车。

Amazon began testing Scout, a six-wheeled rover in Snohomish, Washington, last year. Similar to Wing’s burrito delivery trial, this limited run involved six vehicles, requiring an Amazon employee to escort the robot in the earliest of beta stages.

亚马逊去年开始在华盛顿州的斯诺霍米什测试六轮流浪者侦察车。 与Wing的墨西哥玉米煎饼的送达试验相似，这种有限的运行涉及六辆车，需要一名亚马逊员工在beta版本的最早阶段护送该机器人。

Starship Technologies also has a six-wheeled delivery drone with a maximum cargo capacity of 20 pounds. Aside from the white gloss exterior, it could easily pass for Scout’s twin. Pre-Covid-19, it had been delivering pizza orders to George Mason University students. The closed campus setting was well suited for a pilot service, but Starship recently had to pivot during Virginia’s shelter-in-place orders. Due to restaurant closures related to a Covid-19 response, the city of Fairfax granted fast-track approval for its fleet of 20 robots to deliver groceries and restaurant orders to residents within a small radius.

Starship Technologies还拥有六轮送货无人机，最大载重量为20磅。 除了白色的光泽外，它很容易通过侦察兵的双胞胎。 Covid-19之前，它一直在向乔治·梅森大学的学生发送比萨饼订单。 封闭的校园环境非常适合进行飞行员服务，但“星舰”最近不得不在弗吉尼亚州的临时庇护所中进行调整。 由于与Covid-19响应相关的餐厅关闭， 费尔法克斯市( Fairfax)批准了由20个机器人组成的车队的快速通道 ，以便向小半径范围内的居民提供食品和餐厅订单。

Limited by a travel speed of four miles per hour and a single delivery per drone, autonomous drones won’t likely be delivering goods directly to our doorsteps in the immediate future. But now that curbside pickup is up 208% due to Covid-19-related shopping behavior changes, it’s time to consider more relevant scenarios for rolling robots.

受每小时四英里的行驶速度和每架无人机一次交付的限制，无人驾驶无人机不太可能直接将货物交付给我们 在不久的将来的家门口。 但是，由于与Covid-19相关的购物行为发生变化，现在路边的提货量上升了208％ ，是时候考虑滚动机器人更相关的情况了。

The challenge with curbside pickup is that most retailers still have legacy brick-and-mortar facilities that have been well designed for walk-in customer traffic. Recently, I tested order pickup at Kroger, which required parking in a separate lot and texting a posted number to alert staff that I was ready for my order. It wasn’t ideal and didn’t assuage my growing concerns about contactless delivery. In fairness, converting a single-window drive-through lane at a pharmacy or adding a door at a grocery store isn’t a trivial or inexpensive fix.

路边取货面临的挑战是，大多数零售商仍然拥有专为步入式客流而精心设计的旧式实体设施。 最近，我在克罗格(Kroger)测试了订单提取，该订单需要在一个单独的停车场停车，并通过短信发送张贴的号码来提醒工作人员我已经准备好下订单。 这并不理想，也无法缓解我对非接触式交付日益增长的担忧。 公平地说，在药房转换单窗口直通车道或在杂货店增加门都不是琐事或便宜的解决办法。

未来可能是现在 (The future could be now)

Consider this imagined scene from our near future.

考虑一下我们不久的将来的想象场景。

I roll into an unmodified parking lot for my local grocery retailer and place the car in park. As I idle in a standard parking space, the retailers’ app awakens and acknowledges my arrival as geo-fencing alerts the store systems to my proximity.

我走进当地杂货店的未修改停车场，将汽车停放在公园中。 当我在标准停车位中闲置时，零售商的应用程序会唤醒并确认我的到来，因为地理围栏会警告商店系统临近我的位置。

An in-store associate quickly grabs the bags of groceries for my order and loads them into a six-wheeled carrier. Once the lid is automatically closed, it cheerfully motors outside through a small doggy door and heads to the parking lot. Since the average run from the store to each waiting vehicle is about 50 feet and takes fewer than five minutes, there is little concern about battery drain.

一位店内员工Swift为我的订单抓取了杂货袋，然后将其装入六轮运输车中。 一旦盖子自动关闭，它就会高兴地通过一扇小狗门向外开动，并驶向停车场。 由于从商店到每辆等候的车辆的平均行驶距离约为50英尺，耗时不到5分钟，因此无需担心电池消耗问题。

Given the short distance the drone travels, recharging is only required at the end of each day. And should it fail or require attention, an associate is only footsteps away for collection and maintenance.

由于无人机的行进距离很短，因此仅在每天结束时才需要充电。 并且如果它失败或需要引起注意，则只有员工可以进行收集和维护。

In my rearview mirror, I watch the drone navigate the lot at four miles per hour, crisscrossing dozens of other drones in the fleet on their way to other waiting sedans and SUVs. They respectfully pause for walking customers and each other, as if in a coordinated ballet.

在我的后视镜中，我看到无人驾驶飞机以每小时四英里的速度在很多地方航行，穿越车队中的其他数十架无人驾驶飞机前往其他等待中的轿车和越野车。 他们恭敬地停下来走动顾客和彼此，就像在协调芭蕾舞中一样。

When the drone parks by the rear of my car, the top hatch opens automatically, presenting its cargo. My hands will only be touching the handles on my bags of groceries. As I close the trunk and motor away, the drone automatically closes its hatch and dutifully returns to base through another small doggy door. Upon entry, it passes through a Smurf-sized car wash where pressurized nozzles spray sanitizing disinfectant on the rover, preparing it for the next customer pickup.

当无人驾驶飞机停在我的车尾时，舱门会自动打开，载有货物。 我的手只会碰到我杂货袋上的提手。 当我关闭后备箱和电动机时，无人机会自动关闭舱门，并通过另一个小型小狗门忠实地返回基地。 进入后，它会通过蓝精灵大小的洗车场，在这里加压喷嘴在流动站上喷洒消毒消毒剂，为下一次客户提货做准备。

As I anxiously stand in line outside Costco, wearing surgical gloves and a retailer-mandated face mask and awaiting entry for a chance to purchase a tub of peanut butter, I can’t wait for the future to get here soon enough.

当我焦急地站在Costco外面排队时，戴着外科手术手套和零售商授权的口罩 ，等待入境机会有机会购买一桶花生酱，我迫不及待地希望将来尽快到达这里。