Abstract
Technology roadmapping is becoming more popular in the recent days because of the value it delivers to the organizations, helping them plan strategically and align the technology with business objectives. This paper presents a creation of technology roadmap for drones, used by Amazon for their latest service Amazon Prime Air. The competition in the e-commerce industry is growing every day, and one major area where it makes a huge difference is the shipping prices and time for the delivery. To tackle this problem and overtake its competition, Amazon has come up with the drone delivery concept. Shipping costs and time are what have driven Amazon to choose drones for a faster delivery, low costs, low emissions, and happy customers. It is always difficult to predict the engineering technologies and advancements because of how fast the improvements are taking place. Without any historical data, it is not so easy to forecast them. Drones have been around us since not long ago, which is why predicting the future is not so easy. The focus of this paper is on the drones, and Amazon is going to use for 30 min Prime Air deliveries directly to home. Time is very precious today and that is one of the driving factors for the idea of using drones. Drones are now able to serve the military, for surveillance (wildlife), to help in search and rescue operations, and in shooting movies and sports. Drones are proving to help us in every aspect possible because of the pace at which the technology is improving every day [1].
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Popper, B. (2015). Drones could make Amazon’s dream of free delivery profitable, The Verge. [Online]. Available: http://www.theverge.com/2015/6/3/8719659/amazon-prime-air-drone-delivery-profit-free-shipping-small-items. Accessed 22 Jun 2016.
Hutchinson, S. (2016). How not to lose your job to a Robot, Inverse. [Online]. Available: https://www.inverse.com/article/3232-why-drones-may-not-replace-your-delivery-guy. Accessed 23 Jun 2016.
D’Onfro. (2016). Amazon prime members may spend more than double what Non-Members Do, Business Insider. [Online]. Available: http://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-prime-members-may-spend-more-than-double-what-non-members-do-2015-1. Accessed 14 May 2016.
Daim, T., & Oliver, T. (2008). Implementing technology roadmap process in the energy services sector: A case study of a government agency. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 75(5), 687–720.
The First Urban Drone Delivery Just Happened In Nevada. (2016). Popular Science. [Online]. Available: http://www.popsci.com/first-urban-drone-delivery-successful. Accessed 13 Jun 2016.
Jenkins, D., & Vasigh, B. (2013). The economic impact of unmanned aircraft systems integration in the United States. Arlington, VA: The Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI).
United States Patent and Trademark Office.
McNabb, M. (2015). Amazon’s Sense and Avoid Patent for Drones – DRONELIFE, DRONELIFE. [Online]. Available: http://dronelife.com/2015/12/04/amazons-sense-and-avoid-patent-for-drones/. Accessed 15 Jun 2016.
Phaal, R., & Muller, G. (2007). Towards visual strategy: An architectural framework for road mapping. PICMET ‘07 – 2007 Portland International Conference on Management of Engineering & Technology. n. pag. Web.
Rinne, M. (2004). Technology roadmaps: Infrastructure for innovation. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 71(1–2), 67–80.
Daim, T., Amer, M., & Brenden, R. (2012). Technology road mapping for wind energy: case of the Pacific Northwest. Journal of Cleaner Production, 20(1), 27–37.
Phaal, R., & Muller, G. (2009). An architectural framework for road mapping: Towards visual strategy. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 76(1), 39–49.
Kostoff, R., & Schaller, R. (2001). Science and technology roadmaps. IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, 48(2), 132–143.
Winebrake, J. J. (2004). Technology roadmaps as a tool for energy planning and policy decisions. Energy Engineering: Journal of the Association of Energy Engineering, 101, 20–36.
Daim, T. U., & Oliver, T. (2008). Implementing technology roadmap process in the energy services sector: A case study of a government agency. Technological Forecasting and Social Change75., 5, 687–720.
The Amazon Effect: Impacts on Shipping and Retail | Shorr Packaging Corporation. (2016). Shorr.com. [Online]. Available: http://www.shorr.com/packaging-news/2015-06/amazon-effect-impacts-shipping-and-retail. Accessed 12 Jun 2016.
Amazon quietly builds its own shipping company. (2016). USA TODAY. [Online]. Available: http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/news/2016/01/12/amazon-shipping-france-colis-priv/78686016/. Accessed 17 Jun 2016.
Heisler, Y. (2015). Now we know how Amazon’s crazy drone delivery service will work, BGR. [Online]. Available: http://bgr.com/2015/05/08/amazon-prime-air-patent-drone-delivery/. Accessed 17 Jun 2016.
McFarland, M. (2016). Amazon details its plan for how drones can fly safely over U.S. skies, Washington Post. [Online]. Available: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/innovations/wp/2015/07/28/amazon-details-its-plan-for-how-drones-can-fly-safely-over-u-s-skies/. Accessed 12 Jun 2016.
Overcoming Last Mile Logistics Challenges. (2016). Mitchellsny.com. [Online]. Available: https://www.mitchellsny.com/blog/overcoming-last-mile-logistics-challenges/. Accessed 14 Jun 2016.
Szondy, D. (2016). Jeremy Clarkson unveils Amazon’s new delivery drone, Gizmag.com. [Online]. Available: http://www.gizmag.com/amazon-clarkson-drone-delivery/40641/. Accessed 20 Jun 2016.
Amazon.com, Inc. (2016). Plans for a Vertical Integration to Take on Rivals",Businessfinancenews.com. [Online]. Available: http://www.businessfinancenews.com/27258-amazon-plans-for-a-vertical-integration-to-take-on-rivals/. Accessed 12 Jun 2016.
Lavars, N. (2016). Amazon makes its case for dedicated drone highways in the sky,Gizmag.com. [Online]. Available: http://www.gizmag.com/amazon-drone-highways/38669/. Accessed 23 Jun 2016.
Small Drones Market by Application – 2020. (2016). MakretsandMarkets, Marketsandmarkets.com. [Online]. Available: http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/small-uav-market-141134567.html. Accessed 23 Jun 2016.
Welcome to the Drone Age. (2015). The Economist. [Online]. Available: http://www.economist.com/news/science-and-technology/21666118-miniature-pilotless-aircraft-are-verge-becoming-commonplace-welcome. Accessed 23 Jun 2016.
Soper, Taylor. (2015). Amazon reveals new delivery drone design with range of 15 miles. GeekWire. N.p.,. Web. 21 Jun 2016.
Soper, T. (2015). Amazon reveals new delivery drone design with range of 15 miles, GeekWire. [Online]. Available: http://www.geekwire.com/2015/amazon-releases-updated-delivery-drone-photos-video-showing-new-prototype/. Accessed 21 Jun 2016.
Crowe, S. (2016). How Amazon Drone Delivery Will Work – Robotics Trends, Roboticstrends.com. [Online]. Available: http://www.roboticstrends.com/article/how_amazon_drone_delivery_will_work. Accessed 15 Jun 2016.
Allain, R. (2016). Physics of the Amazon Octocopter Drone, WIRED. [Online]. Available: http://www.wired.com/2013/12/physics-of-the-amazon-prime-air-drone/. Accessed 15 Jun 2016.
DJI Introduces New Geofencing System for its Drones. (2015). DJI NEWS. [Online]. Available: https://www.dji.com/newsroom/news/dji-fly-safe-system. Accessed 13 May 2016.
Wilcox, Tracy. (2016). Amazon spends big money lobbying to change transportation rules (NASDAQ:AMZN). Daily Mail Times. N.p. Web. 22 July 2016.
Wal-Mart Says It Is 6–9 Months from using drones to check Warehouse Inventory. (2016). Reuters. N.p. Web. 23 Jun 2016.
Acknowledgments
The data for this chapter was gathered and analyzed previously by a team of students including Horatiu Corban, Nicole Tuite, Sivagamasundari Sathappan, Kranthi Rapolu, Shiva Singireddy, and Anusha Srivatsa.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Singireddy, S.R.R., Daim, T.U. (2018). Technology Roadmap: Drone Delivery – Amazon Prime Air. In: Daim, T., Chan, L., Estep, J. (eds) Infrastructure and Technology Management. Innovation, Technology, and Knowledge Management. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-68987-6_13
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-68987-6_13
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-68986-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-68987-6
eBook Packages: Business and ManagementBusiness and Management (R0)