The engineers at Zing had a vision of a drone-friendly future with drones making short deliveries in a variety of situations. Instead of industrial sized drones that would require FAA approval, they focused on the DJI drones already in use around the world. Their goal is to give hobby drone pilots the ability to make local deliveries using the Zing app and currently available UAV technology. The team is running a Kickstarter campaign to fund their first production run of Zing baskets for drone delivery.
Zing’s delivery box is plastic construction weighing 250 grams and lets a drone carry up to 600 grams. The box is 10 x 8 inches at its base and 9 inches tall. The system uses a Velcro strap to connect to a drone, and is compatible with the DJI Mavic Pro, Mavic Pro 2, Mavic 2 Zoom, and Mavic 2 Enterprise. A system for the DJI Phantom series of drones is in development and also available through this Kickstarter campaign. The box has been designed and tested to maintain the flight and mobility characteristics of the drones, with some testimonials on the campaign page.
Curiously, the app is developed only for iOS as of this writing with Android functionality coming soon. The app is a peer to peer connection between a pilot and a package receiver, with the receiver pointing their camera at the desired drop off point to set the destination. The app autonomously flies the object to the receiver, giving users on both end the option to watch the flight through the drone’s cameras. The campaign mentions the three current Part 107 FAA regulations – 107.31 Visual line of sight aircraft operation, 107.39 Operation over human beings, and 107.41 Operation in certain airspaces. I would question if there are also regulations regarding drones used as moneymaking opportunities, because the next logical step in this delivery system is short customer runs. Drones will definitely affect how we live in the coming decades and it’s good to see Zing working to carve out their portion of the new market. My gut reaction is concerns over how the box will affect handling and would love to see more testing results and progress that the group makes both with the DJI Phantom drones and their app development. The campaign ends on March 20, 2019 and is currently halfway to its modest $1,000 goal.