A Dayton company is on track to be one of the first to attain FAA certification for autonomous drone deliveries, using Microsoft AI powered drones to bring groceries and supplies to customer homes.
The woman-owned company is preparing to launch its autonomous drone deliveries and expand sustainable, safe and cost effective last-mile drone deliveries to urban areas by summer 2023.
Drone Express recently announced its partnership with Microsoft Corp., utilizing its AI to develop an advanced drone delivery software. Once completed it will enable drones to delivery packages safely, without the need for constant human observation.
This is where Microsoft comes in.
How are Drone Express and Microsoft partnering to create a more intelligent drone?
Landscapes change and objects move, so drones need to make split second decisions to safely deliver packages.
Drone Express has adopted Microsoft Azure to host its AI solutions and machine learning to train its models to detect static and dynamic obstacles. This includes a dynamic obstacle like a pet in the backyard, teaching the drone contact the homeowner or leave the package in a safer location.
Using Azure Machine Learning, Drone Express trains its machine learning models by feeding them photos of obstacles and scenarios that the drones could encounter and teaching them to identify safe delivery areas. Because the models must run on the drone in real time, Drone Express is developing hardware that can run the model computations in a power-constrained environment while remaining lightweight and not overheating, according to Microsoft’s website.
“Microsoft are the AI leaders in the country,” said Drone Express CEO Beth Flippo. “But in order to write AI properly, you need data. You need actual real-life data. That's why you have to partner with somebody like us who can do these deliveries and give the data to them.”
Flippo said Drone Express originally began developing its AI powered by Azure Machine Learning and Azure IoT in 2021. Once the AI is implemented, Drone Express expects to reduce the time it takes to choose a safe spot and release the package from around five minutes to one minute.
The first aircraft with this hardware will enter production by the end of 2022, Microsoft said. Drone Express also is working with Microsoft to build AI models that use minimal processing power while delivering inferences quickly so that the drone can react mid-flight.
“This Microsoft partnership is really big,” Flippo said. “A lot of other companies are focused on how to make their drone carry more and go farther. We're focused on how to make it smarter. Microsoft can work with any body and they choose to work with us.”
Currently, Flippo said Drone Express pilots must maintain a line of sight with the drones. Two pilots are placed at the pickup and drop off points. Using a mesh network, pilots hand off control of the aircraft in midair to land the package safely.
“We still have to have somebody watch it when it comes to somebody's home,” Flippo said. “So now is the best time for us while we have somebody there that person can say the AI was right to pick the good spot or the AI didn't pick a good spot. And that's how you train the AI”
The inclusion of human pilots increases costs for both Drone Express and its customers. As a result, the company has been hard at work on the certification process for autonomous deliveries.
How close is Drone Express to FAA certification?
Before Done Express drones take their virgin solo flight, it must attain its FAA certification for autonomous drone deliveries – something the companies has pursued for almost four years.
Standing in their way is the Part 135 certificate that has hindered the efforts of every drone delivery provider until now. The certification is known as on-demand domestic air carrier certificate – the same certification attained by commercial carriers, Microsoft said.
“Our team embraces anything that’s going to make us safer and better and put us ahead of the competition,” Flippo said. “Our people understand that implementing AI is going to make their jobs better and help them move into other areas like air traffic control. Part 135 is key to being able to fly beyond visual line of sight.”
While no company has received Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) authorization for a drone to make a delivery without a pilot maintaining line of sight, Drone Express is closing the gap with zero safety incidents.
The FAA has responded positively to Drone Express’ Azure-powered solution and Flippo believes they will secure certification by the end of 2022 or very beginning of 2023.
“We're probably one of the smallest in the group, getting it done and definitely one of the only female-owned corporations,” Flippo said. “There aren't a lot of people or corporations period, but it's incredibly rare for females to be in aviation. It's exciting.”
FAA certification will enable drones to cross state lines and to leave the pilot’s line of sight. Customers can then expect faster and cheaper deliveries as AI takes the controls, Microsoft said.
“Using drones is going to change the way people get deliveries ...,” Flippo said. “Right now, we have a max capacity of five pounds, but our intention is to do multiple deliveries just like Amazon. ... So if you're not going to need to carry a lot of weight, you're just send multiple aircrafts there throughout the day.”
An update on other Drone Express partners
Since its initial delivery in July 2021, Drone Express has placed its partners on pause including Kroger Co. and Papa Johns.
“We're still working with them, we're just taking it easy,” Flippo said. “We don't need to roll out a lot until we get our certificates. So those programs are really just on pause until we decide to turn them back on.”
Their current partnership involves delivering construction materials for Winsupply – something Flippo said is a great training opportunity for the AI due to the changing landscape of a construction site.
The company anticipates more partnerships to come in spring 2023, although none have been officially announced.
Drone Express, a division of Telegrid, recently moved into its 6,000-square-foot headquarters in Dayton at 123 Webster St. in the Firefly Building near Day Air Ballpark. The company, founded in 2019, currently employs 50 workers and passed its first seed round in November of 2021, raising $5 million.
Seattle-based Microsoft remains a technology leader and software pioneer with more than 220,000 employees posting $168 billion in 2021 revenue.
