Looking at textbook delivery service differently: Flying books may soon populate the skies through drones

An in-depth analysis on how the aerial vehicle could potentially change the educational world.

Michelle Monteiro, Staff Writer

KEY POINTS AT A GLANCE:

The use of drones could be a new, cheaper way for university students worldwide to rent and buy textbooks if all goes well with a pilot program in Australia.
The company, Zookal, says that drones will dramatically reduce the cost of local shipping for textbooks and cut delivery time.
The expansion of this service beyond Sydney to other nations will prove to be difficult because many countries, such as the United States, have legislation opposing commercial drone operations.
Critics have wondered why Zookal should even bother with drones when their flying time will never outdo the download speed of an e-book. There are also the inevitable regulatory challenges and safety concerns.

Renting and buying textbooks has become a hassle for Heather Elder, a second year student in the Concurrent Education Program at the University of Toronto. Having ordered a popular textbook in early September for a religion course, she – instead of the normal five-day-or-less wait for an order to be fulfilled – waited approximately six weeks before receiving her purchase. A long and rare wait.

But perhaps flying textbooks would be better?

The use of drones, also known as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), could be a new, cheaper way for university students worldwide to rent and buy textbooks if all goes well with a pilot program developed in Australia. Zookal, which sells and rents textbooks to Australian university students, has launched a trial at the University of Sydney to deliver textbooks by drones – autonomous hexacopters.

Partnered with Flirtey, the providers of the unmanned aerial vehicles, the drone will fly to a customer at a designated GPS location based on data sent from an app on the customer’s cell phone. There, they will drop off textbook purchases at an outdoor location of the customer’s choosing.

Zookal says that this innovative service will dramatically reduce the cost of shipping textbooks locally and cut delivery time. The drone will fly to the assigned location then lower the book package to the waiting customer – a process, the company claims, that can be completed in as little as two to three minutes once a drone takes flight.

“If this was done in Canada, I certainly wouldn’t have to travel all the way to Toronto to pick up my textbooks, that’s for sure,” Elder pointed out. “The wait-up will also be significantly shorter and as a university student, I can’t afford to lose time when there’s so much to be done.”

Matthew Sweeny, the co-founder of Flirtey, says in a promotional video that the pilot program is all about “taking technology that was previously only available to the military and to universities, democratizing it and commercializing it so that anybody can order goods or services and have them flown straight to their smart phone.” Sounds good, right?

So what’s next?

Utilizing drones to make its deliveries in Sydney, the company hopes to deliver nationwide to Australia, with ambitions to bring the method to American customers by 2015.

The expansion of this service, beyond Sydney to other countries will prove to be difficult because many countries such as the United States have legislation opposing commercial drone operations.

For example, the American government blocked the Tacocopter, which promised to deliver tacos to customers in the Silicon Valley with a smartphone app. In a Huffington Post article Star Simpson, one of the three co-founders, states that the “one of the main obstacles to getting Tacocopter ‘off the ground’ is the government [because] it’s not totally unreasonable to regulate something as potentially dangerous as having flying robots slinging tacos over people’s heads.” More on this later.

In addition, the Federal Aviation Administration will first need to outline a clear policy for commercial drone usage, issuing regulations governing the commercial use of drones before such a system can make its way to a powerhouse nation.

Nonetheless, Zookal is hopeful. Using drones for commercial purposes has been easier in Australia, thanks to a 2002 ruling from the Australian Civil Aviation Safety Authority, allowing the use of drones in emergency services and by animal rights activists to spy on farmers they suspect of animal cruelty (Very controversial and another discussion altogether).

Ahmed Haider, Zookal CEO, claims that “as one of the few countries in the world to allow commercial drone activities, Australia is uniquely placed to create a new drone industry and shape the development of regulations in this space.”

How do the drones work:

So what happens when a student orders a textbook using Zookal’s new delivery service? First off, the drones are autonomous and unmanned, meaning they do not require humans to operate them. Any movement made by a drone is done of its own volition, although the final destination is obviously predetermined.

Upon selecting a textbook, customers will also be required to choose an outdoor location for where they want their purchases delivered. The location’s coordinates will then be transmitted via Zookal’s smartphone app which will enable the drone to move accordingly.

One can track the drone’s progress and the journey of their textbook order from the app on a Google-powered map. The customer can then head outside to the designated location once the drone is getting close.

The drone never fully lowers itself to the ground, but rather hovers overhead and lowers its textbook delivery. This lowering movement can be made with the tap of a button on one’s smartphone. As soon as the delivery has been made, the drone will presumably head back to Zookal headquarters for another textbook delivery.

The drones can carry up to four and a half pounds and will drastically reduce shipping costs to approximately $3, compared to $30 with the traditional route. The drones are not equipped with cameras to avoid any potential privacy or surveillance concerns.

Haider believes Zookal has overcome the challenges of operating a drone in a dense urban environment. It has collision avoidance systems to prevent collisions with birds, trees, buildings, and overhead wires and drones are required to stay ten feet above ground or higher during delivery at all times.

(View the Zookal drone in action here.)

Will the Drones Really be Effective?

There are issues with Zookal’s plans to innovate the textbook delivery industry. Critics have questioned Zookal’s ambitious new delivery method since its inception.

For starters, some have wondered why Zookal should even bother with drones when their flying will never outdo the download speed of an e-book.

There are also the inevitable regulatory challenges and safety concerns of operating an unmanned aerial vehicle in residential areas. Earlier this year for example, authorities in Shanghai shot down the world’s first cake drones, deployed by a bakery to carry its patisseries to the outskirts of the city.

According to the Shanghai Daily newspaper, one commentator worried: “what if a cake fell on a passer-by from the sky?”, echoing potential fears shrieking “you just dropped a book on me!” if this program literally and figuratively ‘takes off’. Just like with the Tacocopter, nobody really wants a taco slung at their heads, so of course some are going to be troubled about textbooks (which are heavier than tacos and cakes) hovering over their them.

As long as there is fear over concussions from random flying objects, perhaps more thought on this delivery system is in order.

The History of Drones: What can the past tell us?

As technology becomes more advanced and cheaper, civilian usage of drones has developed rapidly as Zookal’s textbook delivery service evidently exemplifies. What is now used to deliver tacos, cakes and textbooks was initially designed for investigative purposes and the drones’ military and commercial development was often out of sight of the public. Here is a brief summary of drone usage throughout time:

Drones were originally used for taking photographs from the sky, the first aerial photograph taken using a kite in 1883. By 1898 this technology was used in the Spanish-American War, which led to the first military aerial reconnaissance photos.

In the 1930s, the British Royal Navy developed a radio-controlled UAV called the Queen Bee, serving as aerial target practice for British pilots. During the World War II, the Nazis created their own UAV known as the Revenge Weapon I, to be used against non-military targets. It became responsible for more than nine hundred civilian deaths and injured more than thirty-five thousand across Britain. Now do you see all the concern for flying textbooks?

The United States used drones in the 1960s and 70s for surveillance flights during missions over China and Vietnam. At this point, they were operated with a joystick control. Israel also developed the Scout and the Pioneer during the late 70s and 80s and were used to transmit live video – a big step away from photos.

Since then, UAVs have become smaller and cheaper, so much so that one could use a drone as their own surveillance device and accomplish a growing list of tasks. According to CTV News, a company in British Columbia is using drones to survey gravel pits, map deposit sites and explore for minerals. The RCMP has used them in the past in search-and-rescue operations. McGill researchers are using drones to track bird and bear populations. And controversially, prison guards in Quebec are requesting tighter security because drones are often flying over their institution, dropping drugs for inmates.

It’s all a far cry from the usual military uses one often associates with drones, but concern and fear still lingers among residents worldwide.

Other companies you didn’t know that are currently trying drone deliveries:

In the past few months, several companies have received buzz for their use of drones to deliver their products. Here’s a list of a few:

BurritoBomber claims that it will let one place a burrito order from his or her smartphone and drop a “delicious delicacy” from above.
South Africa’s OppiKoppi music festival claims to have dropped cold beers from the sky, delivered safely to thirsty festival goers via parachute. (Presumably, there have been no complaints of beer falling on heads.)
Dominos Pizza’s drone, called the DomiCopter, will be delivering pizza
And perhaps most recently, Amazon announced that it is planning to start delivering products by unmanned aerial vehicles.

It remains to be seen just how successful Zookal’s pilot program will be for universities students in Sydney and, if ever, students outside of Australia. Nonetheless, Heather Elder hopes there will be flying textbooks in her academic future.

Known as Michelle, she’s been writing since hands could grasp paper and pencils. She’s learned that a pencil is an extension of the hand, a gateway to the psyche. Currently, she is an undergraduate at the University of Toronto, completing a BA in English and Book & Media Studies. For more of her quirkiness, follow her blog at http://therealmichellemonteiro.wordpress.com.