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This podcast episode is a replay from my previous podcast that was focused on STEM education. I decided to repost it in this podcast, because it gives you a few new ideas of what we can do with drone technology.
The research article I summarized can be found here. You can also read my blog post on my personal blog to get some additional information.
Full transcript:
0:00
Discover drones is your go to resource for learning about drones, drones in business, emerging drone technology and drones in STEM education. I am Dr. Heather Monthie, an FAA certificated flight instructor, commercial pilot, remote pilot and dedicated stem educator. Join us as we discover more about drone safety, urban Air Mobility, business and education. Let’s get started. Hi, and welcome back to the podcast. I’m Heather Monthie. And this episode, what I am doing is I am re sharing with you a podcast episode that I did in my old podcast that was really geared towards STEM education. But I talked a lot about drones in that podcast. And so I wanted to share with you a couple of episodes that I used in that podcast, I think that you will find interesting so this podcast episode is about the library of the future. It’s about library drone delivery and some of the things that we might want to think about as
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We are advancing in drone technology and some of the uses for it. And so what I did is I found a research article that I just summarized a little bit share with you some of the things that were they’re doing. And then a couple different links in the show notes are available if you guys want to check out the article itself and some of the other resources that I share with you in this episode. So enjoy.
1:24
Alright, so let’s dive in. We’re going to talk about the library of the future. So I have been sharing quite a bit about how I am learning more and more about the different types of drone business models that are out there, and the different drone use cases. I think that this is an emerging technology that there’s a lot of ideas being thrown out there. Some are good, some are not as good. Some may need a few more years for other technology to develop. But I came across an article written by Francis Nath from the rain forest Research Institute in India. And in this article, Francis discusses the idea of library drones
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To delivery services. So it wasn’t really something that I have come across much in the drone blogs or the scholarly papers that I read about with drone technology and business in that. So I thought it was an interesting idea and interesting concept to try to help get more and more people using library resources that can’t necessarily be delivered online. So in this episode, today, I’m going to give you a summary of the article I also linked to the actual article in the show notes if you’re interested in reading the actual article itself. So I’m going to provide to you a summary of this article as well as a little bit of my own opinions and input on article. So you know, as we all know, over the past several years, drone technology has become much more commercialized. And as a result, there are many creative technology professionals and entrepreneurs who are looking for ways to create scalable businesses around this new emerging technology. There are current sources of
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revenue for drone operators these are existing business models for drone operators. These are going to be things like filming video and movies, aerial photography, doing search and rescue operations, crop monitoring services and meteorological services. And as more and more business leaders become more familiar and more comfortable with this technology, a lot of businesses are moving their drone services in house now. So this article is titled library drone delivery program a study. So in this article Nath provides a framework for understanding how drone technology can be integrated into library resources for the community. So there, you know, obviously, we know people are busier than ever right now. Well, except for right now because of the quarantine. But if you’re listening to this in the future, you know, people are very busy and a lot of people don’t have time to visit their libraries and use the resources that are available to them. If you think about it, what
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If your local library offered drone delivery services, first of all, would you use it. And second of all, drone delivery could deliver books wherever and whenever a patron needed the resources just by using their smartphones. So worldwide, there are already a few drone delivery services up and running. There’s a company called flytrex in Israel. And in here in the US, the FAA is working with several drone delivery companies, including amazon prime air. So there’s one somewhat easier way for libraries to bring drone technology into its offering. And that is to provide workshops and curriculum to the community on how to fly code and build drones. drones will and already have created opportunities around content creation, research, and as a result library should be using this emerging technology. So if you think about it,
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in densely populated areas, libraries are generally centrally located. But as a result of urban expansion, traffic, complicated bus schedules, which oftentimes requires people to do multiple transfers to get to the library, and then hectic schedules often prevent people from using the library and the services available from the library. So to encourage more library use delivery drones could deliver two to five books at a time, right to the patrons doorstep or even right to their hands regardless of their location using GPS technology in their phones. So say you are you know, you’re working at a coffee shop, a local coffee shop and you need a book and you need it. You know, now, you could use your an app on your phone, and using the GPS technology in your phone. The drone could then deliver the the book that you need, right to you at that coffee shop.
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So this article was written in 2018. And at that time, the cost of a single delivery drone was $5,000. Now, that price is going to either go up or down over the next couple of years, obviously, just depending on the type of technology that’s used, and how new the technology is a you know, with anything with technology price comes down over time. But as new technology comes out, you know, the price generally goes up. So now if you add on the cost of software and extending the library’s integrated Library Management System, there does need to be an investment and a long term commitment to implementing a drone program in the library. So whether you’re offering, you know, workshops and curriculum and, and that type of thing that’s going to have a different cost model around it versus if we get to a point where we can do drone delivery of books, there’s going to be a different level of financial commitment on the part
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The library. So, if a library were to bring drone delivery to their available resources, here’s what it might look like. And in the article, it was, uh, the steps that that Nath went through, were much more detailed, I summarized them into four steps of how this would work. So the first step would be that the library patron uses the app the library app to make a selection, and that the patrons physical location then would be found using the phone’s GPS. And then step number two would be that the library receives the request and the staff retrieve and check out the documents. So I thought it would be cool to have an automated robot retrieve the books. So I had talked a little bit about in a previous episode about the robot Master, which is a it’s not a an aircraft. It is a it’s an autonomous robot that could be used to help train in automated automated warehousing systems.
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So, you could essentially look at the library as a warehouse and that robot master or another type of robot could be programmed to autonomously retrieve the books and check them out. And then at that point, step number three would be that the books are handed off from the library staff over to the drone handling staff to safely pack the drone. And then step number four, the staff in the ground control center would fly would then fly the drone to deliver the books and then fly back. So you as I talk through those four steps you can see especially here in the US, we’re still struggling a little bit with some of the regulations and how we’re going to allow some of these things to happen. You we get into some complex airspace issues. We get into
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flying at night. We get into that
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Being able to fly beyond visual line of sight. You know, there’s there’s a lot of things that still need to be worked through. But these ideas are there and people are thinking about them. So, these are some considerations that need to be taken if a library is considering, you know, a library, drone delivery service. So, you know, and I always say with creating anything new, there are always some important things to consider, right? You always have to, you always have to ask, you know, why is this necessary? Why is library drone delivery necessary? What is it that you’re trying to accomplish? What pain point are you trying to solve?
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You also want to make sure that you document the technical requirements of the drone, your integrated Library Management System, any sort of maintenance that needs to occur, or has occurred, data storage requirements, all that kind of stuff should be very clearly documented. There should be a site analysis conducted
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To determine any sort of CV, safety hastur safety hazards, and you’re in, you’re going to want to do an airspace analysis as well. So when you’re conducting that site analysis, it’s not just the physical, you know, the ground layer stuff. You also want to look at what are the airspace rules and the airspace above you, and then the airspace in your area that you’re going to be offering delivery services.
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Then you want to ask how, when and where will the drone delivery services be tested? And then what constitutes success? How will you know that your test or your pilot is successful? What you need to determine that on the forefront to know are you going to move forward with this? Or is it something that you need to scrap and start from scratch again? And then one question I always like to add in is so what so you want to do library drone delivery services will So what? Okay, so this helps you get past the really this is
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Really cool thing to do. And it gets you more to the nitty gritty of the problem you’re trying to solve. So you know, if you are a library serving a very, very rural community, this may be an option for getting more and more library resources into the hands of your community.
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And then, you know, I always suggest creating a pros and cons list for any new technology related project.
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And so I give you library drone delivery pros and cons. This is also pros and cons that were listed in the article by Nath so some of the pros are going to be that there is quicker access to library resources that can’t be available online. So printed texts, printed documents, your physical resources that people may need, but they can’t get access to it online. So you know, versus somebody versus like putting a reserve or a hold on on something and then having to drive in to pick it up. This could be
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Be it could be delivered to them instead, it could save time for patrons.
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It could this one I thought was kind of interesting, because I think I’m probably guilty of this myself is that it could help boost circulation since patrons might not necessarily stockpile things, because it’s easier to get more books when they need them. So I think I’m probably guilty of that where I will check out you know, 10 books at a time, because I just want to make one trip to the library. drone delivery services for library can also act as a mobile library, bringing resources to patrons who live further away. And people who live in retirement homes, people who have a little bit more of a difficulty actually physically getting to the library. This could also be branded as a subscription service to help generate revenue for maintenance and support other drones and the software that is around supporting it. And then also the staff that are needed to help support the drone delivery program. And this could actually bring back the popularity of physical books. So people your age
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using more and more ebooks, they’re easier to check out online, this could actually bring back the popularity than a physical books.
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Some of the cons to library drone delivery services may be things like weather, our weather is going to cause delays. Regardless of where you live. I live in sunny Arizona, but there’s still going to be days where weather is going to cause delays. There could be issues with malfunctions of the drone, and you don’t obviously don’t want the drone to malfunction over traffic over people.
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There could be some security issues just due to the due to human intervention. So that’s a whole nother topic, right? There’s drone security and the software that’s around supporting the drone.
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And then there’s going to be some certain legal issues that I already kind of mentioned where things like with night delivery flying over people, airspace limitations, and even some trespassing violations. That
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Some communities are putting into place. So you know, the there’s, there’s quite a few legal issues that need to be worked through here as well. So I think, you know, library drone delivery services are always off here in the US. But these are the kinds of things that we should be thinking about as technology professionals, entrepreneurs, educators, these are these are the things that we need to be thinking about for the future and different ideas, and how things can be done. And having that sort of imagination and creative thought that goes into saying, Okay, we’ve got this new technology, we’ve got this great piece of technology, what are some possible use cases for it? Now you have to remember, some things are going to be like, no, that’s not a really good idea at all, and others are really going to take off but you know, we’re at that point where we need to be thinking through this kind of stuff. So, you know, if you’re in the US, the first step to getting started to implementing any sort of drone program in any type of business library or otherwise is to earn your FAA part 107 certificate
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which I
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I do have a course coming out for you for that I have a free study guide on my website as well you can go to Heather Monthie comm slash slash shop to get a grab your copy of the the free, the free guide and then I also have a course coming out in spring of 2020 and it’s to help you pass the FAA part 107 certificate, and so you can sign up for the waitlist if you’re listening to this right now you can sign up for the waitlist on my website, just go to Heather Monthie comm and then click on drone courses and you will see the FAA part 107 course right there, you can sign up for the waitlist, be the first to be notified when it is ready to go. If you’re listening to this after spring of 2020 it is available. So make sure you check out my website for more information there. So and then the final thing that I wanted to share with you is that if you work in a library, and you are interested in learning more about how you can bring drones into
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Your library offering your library, your library resources. And in STEM education, I want to invite you to our educators who drone Facebook community. So this is a free Facebook community of educators, pilots and STEM education advocates. And that’s a spot where we just share resources, share ideas, that kind of thing. And so if you are a librarian, you work in a library, you’re you’re interested in bringing some of these workshops and seminars to your local community. Join us there for us to you know, just continue the conversation and talk about how we can bring drones, drones into education drones, into your community, that kind of thing. So and then finally, I did provide a link to the article again, it is by Francis Nath, it is called library drone delivery program, a study and you could find it in the Journal of Library and Information Technology. It was published in 2018. And I will provide a link to that in the show notes for you guys. If you’re interested.
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In reading that, so thank you. If you enjoyed this episode, please make sure you share it with somebody who you think might be interested in this, whether they are a librarian. They are a teacher. They are an entrepreneur, a tech professional, anybody who is interested in looking at creative ways of implementing drone delivery services and drone technology using this, this fantastic emerging technology. So share it with them. I really appreciate it and I’ll see you guys in the next episode.
