Project Wing

Project Wing is developing a system that uses self-flying vehicles for the delivery of goods.
THE HISTORY OF THE PROJECT
Late 2011

Throughout 2013

Google[x] team wonders if the automation of small flying vehicles had

reached a point where they could be used for speedy delivery above
congestion, within minutes.

Experiments and test flights to learn the many challenges of

autonomous flight and aerial delivery.

July 2012
Nick Roy joins from MIT Aeronautics & Astronautics, tasked with
exploring what a project in this area might look like.

Team travels to Queensland, Australia, for first delivery flights to real

people using prototype vehicle. Two farmers receive candy bars, dog
treats, cattle vaccines, water, radios, and more.

Original mission: delivering defibrillators to heart attack victims.

Every second counts.

Nick heads back to MIT. Dave Vos, a longtime expert in automating

systems for aviation, joins to lead the team from research to product.

August 2014

Team investigates hybrid vehicles: wings for fast forward flight,

rotors for hovering for delivery and vertical take-off and landing.
Starts building own vehicles.

THE TECHNOLOGY

FIXED WING

Our vehicle hovers at 40-60m

(above common obstacles)
while making deliveries

ROTORS

1.5m WIDE X 0.8m TALL

PACKAGE

We expect it will take years to develop a service with multiple vehicles

flying multiple deliveries per day. Heres why:
These planes have much more in common with the Google
self-driving car than the remote-controlled airplanes people
fly in parks on weekends.
They will fly a programmed route with just the push of a button,
and theyll follow rules to respond safely if they run into unexpected
situations like a gust of wind.
Over time there will be many different vehicle types and shapes:
what you want to deliver and where and why will determine
what vehicle you want to use.

Our focus for the next year:

Safety systems well teach vehicles
to navigate around each other (this is
called detect and avoid) and to handle
events like mechanical trouble safely
Precise navigation we have to fly
efficient delivery routes that respect
constraints such as noise, privacy, and
safety of those on the ground, and we
have to be good enough to deliver to
an exact spot the size of a doorstep

Common tree level

Approximate house height

Reducing the noise of the vehicles

An end-to-end delivery system
Sizes shown true-to-scale

THE POTENTIAL
Self-flying vehicles could open up entirely new approaches to moving
goods including options that are cheaper, faster, less wasteful and
more environmentally sensitive than whats possible today.
Throughout history, major shifts in how we move goods from place to
place have led to new opportunities for economic growth and generally
made consumers lives easier. From steam ships to the railroads, from
the postal service to delivery services like FedEx and DHL, speed has
reshaped society not only with greater convenience but also by making
more goods accessible to more people.
And when you can get something near-instantly, it changes how you
think about it. Think of the mom stuck at home with two sick kids, the
hiker whos met a poisonous snake, or the farmer out in the field with
a sick animal. It could also open up new models for sharing goods
rather than owning them who needs a power drill for more than
eight minutes a year?
Furthermore, theres a lot of friction in how we do things currently
double-parked delivery trucks clog city streets, traffic jams choke the
fast-growing cities of Africa and Asia. And have you ever thought about
how environmentally unfriendly it is to send a 2000kg car across town
with a 2kg package of food?
And thats just in the parts of the world that have good roads; e.g., only
13% of Perus roads are paved (World Bank 20131). In mountainous
regions, winding roads and bad weather pose obstacles. After floods
and earthquakes, its difficult for emergency workers to deliver
batteries, medical supplies, and cell phones to people who need them.
In a surprising number of situations, small, inexpensive delivery vehicles
that can fly as the crow flies could be a powerful new option.

Before we develop our system, we want to go out and learn about

more situations in which aerial delivery could help people in their daily
lives and jobs. In the meantime, here are some examples of how other
organizations are using self-flying vehicles:
In Bhutan, which has hundreds of remote medical clinics,
Matternet is testing drones for deliveries3 of medical supplies
and sending patient samples to hospitals for testing
In Namibia, the World Wildlife Fund is trying to spot wildlife
poachers4, and in Belize, the Wildlife Conservation Society is trying
to protect the coral reef system5, detecting habitat damage and
spotting illegal fishing activity6
The Nature Conservancy has been using UAVs to monitor the
numbers of migratory birds in California7
NOAA (the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration)
gathers climate data8 to understand how humans impact the planet
In Peru archaeologists are trying to protect historical treasures9 like
Machu Picchu from looters and squatters
In Wisconsin, an amateur drone operator found a missing man10
after 20 minutes; officials had been searching for 3 days using
helicopters, search dogs, and volunteers on foot
Potential economic benefits:
Integrating the devices into U.S. airspace could boost the economy
by at least $13.6 billion in the first three years, according11 to the
Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems Integration
In 10 years, projections suggest 100,000 jobs will be added through
the development of UAVs (AUVSI)
1. http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/IS.ROD.PAVE.ZS
2. http://www.flickr.com/photos/lingaraj/2415084235/sizes/l/
3. http://qz.com/245961/a-revolutionary-drone-based-delivery-network-is-being-tested-inbhutan/
4. http://www.worldwildlife.org/stories/an-eye-in-the-sky-for-boots-on-the-ground
5. http://www.wcs.org/press/press-releases/conservation-drones-in-belize.aspx
6. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/22/science/drones-on-a-different-mission.html
7. http://blog.nature.org/science/2014/03/06/drones-uav-sandhill-cranes-californiawetlands/
8. http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2008/20080122_aircraft.html
9. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/14/arts/design/drones-are-used-to-patrol-endangeredarchaeological-sites.html
10. http://mashable.com/2014/07/23/drone-saves-life-missing-man/
11. http://www.auvsi.org/resources/economicreport

Much of the world is inaccessible by road (shown in green)

from National Park Service

Trafficjamdelhi by NOMAD2