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Delivery Drones Coming Soon?
ResumeThe online retail giant, Amazon, got lots of press earlier this month when it announced that in the not-to-distant-future it plans to use unmanned drones to deliver packages.
But the prospect of the squadrons of drones whizzing around over our heads and homes raises some pretty big questions. Like, Really? And, How would that work?
Comedian Steven Colbert summed it up best: "There's the drone picking up the package and flying out of the warehouse, navigating through the parts of America with no trees, phone lines or buildings, then landing on your doorstep while your family cowers inside until after the semi-autonomous, blade-wielding octo-copter leaves."
A blade-wielding octocopter. Coming soon? Or just a dream?
It's sometimes tough to sort out what's a gimmick and what's really the future of robotic vehicles. Are more drones coming? Sure. But what will they look like and what will they do?
Guests
Holly Yanco, professor in the Computer Science Department at UMass Lowell, joining the faculty in July 2001. She is also the director of the New England Robotics Validation and Experimentation (NERVE) Center.
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This segment aired on December 11, 2013.