The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Sep. 19, 2017
Filed:
Jun. 09, 2015
Amazon Technologies, Inc., Seattle, WA (US);
Michael John Elzinga, Woodinville, WA (US);
Nathan Michael Paczan, Seattle, WA (US);
Amazon Technologies, Inc., Seattle, WA (US);
Abstract
This disclosure provides egress and ingress for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) from a fulfillment center (FC) to perform deliveries of products and return to the FC from such deliveries while providing minimal exposure of an interior of the FC. The UAV may be used to deliver the cargo from the FC to a destination, and then return to the FC to retrieve other cargo for another transport to another destination. In some embodiments, departing UAVs may be launched from the FC through a launch bay and returning UAVs may land upon a conveyance system to await being transported back into the FC. A flight coordinator may also provide assignments to the UAV based upon a current state of the UAV and other nearby UAVs and also based on a current order backlog of the FC and/or other considerations.