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Introducing Project Wing
X, the moonshot factory
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All the comments and stories posted to Hacker News that reference this video.The hook was what I remembered the most from their video 5 years ago though!
Back in 2014 Google was using fixed wings: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRTNvWcx9OoThey must have changed for good reasons.
Google Project Wing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRTNvWcx9OoTransition Robotics Quadshot: http://transition-robotics.com/
The key differentiator to Amazon (and most any other delivery drone system I've seen) is that this is a tailsitter: it takes off vertically, and can hover in place for deliveries, but it flies horizontally.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tail-sitter
This means it's much faster and more efficient in flight than your standard quadcopter design.
Also, Google's full official promotional video, the BBC clip seems to be taken from this.
⬐ kenrikmGoogle's design is very similar to the QuadShot which was built by a team from Santa Cruz.⬐ ansible⬐ qq66Yes, I notice that too. The engine layout is a little different though.The QuadShot seemed a bit difficult to control. The automatic control and/or the larger size seemed to help the Google drone to be more stable.
It is an interesting design choice. I hope to see more updates soon!
⬐ bri3dI also wonder if the Google drone uses a symmetric airfoil (no lift at level flight) like the QuadShot, or if they use a standard wing design. The symmetric airfoil obviously makes control easier when in vertical (quadrotor) flight, but loses efficiency and stability in horizontal (plane) flight.I have a QuadShot and it's not too difficult to control. I think with a good control system the airframe could work pretty well. The QuadShot is quite lightweight, has all its mass centered, and has a pretty large wing cross-section which makes it difficult to fly in the wind though. I also don't feel that the QuadShot's firmware was ever quite nailed down completely - I feel that there's still a lot more stability to be gained by tweaking PIDs and improving the control system, or by adding additional inputs like optical flow.
The Google device probably benefits a lot from being bigger as it's difficult to substitute for inertia.
⬐ kenrikmI've never flown a QuadShot though I recently (last weekend) saw one flown at Baylands park down in Sunnyvale. I noticed it never really looked like the pilot was "in control"The military unmanned delivery aircraft are all tail sitters (500 pound payloads). I hope Google's drafting behind all the existing R&D there. The military stuff out there is crazy - hummingbird-size ornithopters, 2 ounce helicopters that can fly for 30 minutes with an encrypted HD video uplink, etc.,⬐ foobarqux⬐ clebioWhy are tail sitters better than a tilt rotor?⬐ Fragment⬐ asynchronous13The only reason for tilt-rotors is when you need to keep the main body of the aircraft level.The only problem with tail-sitters is the pilot (and possibly the payload).
⬐ lutusp⬐ jpatokal> The only reason for tilt-rotors is when you need to keep the main body of the aircraft level.Actually, a tilt-rotor can be manipulated to make the aircraft go where you want it to. The same idea explains how helicopters make their way across the landscape.
Less moving parts. Tilt rotors exist mostly because humans find it difficult to cope with a tailsitter's changes in attitude.Can you name a single tail sitter in active use by the military?The k-max helicopter was used for a lot of unmanned cargo supply missions.
RC planes get a lot more flight time than RC helis of equivalent gas/battery power. And the horizontal distance they can cover is better as well. You're right this is different, though it shouldn't be too hard for Amazon to transition to wings instead of rotors (though the control mechanics are somewhat different as well).
⬐ cyphunkGoogle, making the world a better place. together.⬐ serfI was hoping for a Gundam, but drone delivery is fine, too.The vertical take-off plane design is pretty cool.
⬐ jpatokalHN discussion here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8240088