{"id":128747,"date":"2023-12-13T16:00:11","date_gmt":"2023-12-13T16:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.nvidia.com\/?p=68713"},"modified":"2023-12-13T16:00:11","modified_gmt":"2023-12-13T16:00:11","slug":"pie-from-the-sky-drone-startup-delivers-pizza-meds-and-side-of-excitement-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/webdomino.net\/index.php\/nvidia\/pie-from-the-sky-drone-startup-delivers-pizza-meds-and-side-of-excitement-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Pie From the Sky: Drone Startup Delivers Pizza, Meds and Side of Excitement"},"content":{"rendered":"

Zipline isn\u2019t just some pie-in-the-sky drone startup.<\/p>\n

The San Francisco-based company has completed more than 800,000 deliveries in seven countries since its start in 2011. It recently added services for Seattle\u2019s Pagliacci Pizza, vitamin and supplement giant GNC, and large health systems like Intermountain Health, OhioHealth and Michigan Medicine.<\/p>\n

Zipline developed its drones \u2014 which have now flown more than 55 million miles \u2014 for autonomous navigation and precision landings using the NVIDIA Jetson<\/a> edge AI and robotics platform.<\/p>\n

The fast-growing company recently landed $330 million in funding at a more than $4 billion valuation.<\/p>\n

Zipline is a member of NVIDIA Inception<\/a>, a program that provides startups with technological support and AI platform guidance.<\/p>\n

Delivering With Jetson-Powered Fleets<\/b><\/h2>\n

The company\u2019s P1 drone, or platform one, has been deployed in production for seven years and currently uses the Jetson Xavier NX<\/a> system-on-module to process its sensor inputs. It\u2019s guided by GPS, air traffic control communications, inertial measurement unit sensors and its onboard detection and avoidance system, with redundancy of guidance for safety.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe NVIDIA Jetson module in the wing is part of what delivers our acoustic detection and avoidance system, so it allows us to listen for other aircraft in the airspace around us and plot trajectories that avoid any conflict,\u201d said A.J. Frantz, navigation lead at Zipline.<\/p>\n

The company\u2019s fixed-wing drones can fly out more than 55 miles, at 70 miles per hour, for deliveries from one of several Zipline distribution centers and then return. Capable of hauling up to four pounds of cargo, they autonomously fly over delivery locations and release packages that float down to their destination by parachute.<\/p>\n

The company\u2019s P2, or platform two, is a hybrid drone that can fly fast on fixed-wing flights \u2014 but also hover. It can carry eight pounds of cargo for 10 miles and packs a droid that can be lowered on a tether to complete deliveries with precision placement. It\u2019s intended for use in dense, urban environments.<\/p>\n

The P2 uses two Jetson Orin NX<\/a> modules. One is for the drone\u2019s sensor fusion system to understand environments. The other is in the droid that descends by tether \u2014 for redundancy to provide added safety.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe P2 droid is about bringing the smallest, quickest, safest, quietest drone in for delivery, coming down precisely and leaving the package \u2014 and then going back up,\u201d said Joseph Mardall, head of engineering at Zipline. \u201cWe want to integrate into people\u2019s lives in a way that they love and that feels magical.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zipline completes one delivery every 70 seconds globally.<\/p>\n