Challenge

To fly autonomously, Zips need to know their position and orientation at all times to a high degree of accuracy. Standard GPS is only accurate to 5 meters, which isn’t enough for safe flight operations or accurate deliveries.

Solution

Zipline embedded a custom-built navigation system that uses onboard flight components and relative positioning. Every Zip can autonomously determine where it is in 3-dimensional space down to a single centimeter, which means safer, more controlled flight at every turn.

Challenge

In order to increase our turnaround time and minimize the physical footprint required to operate our services, Zipline needed to think of a way to recover the aircraft without building a runway.

Solution

Inspired by modern aircraft carriers, Zipline built a durable high-throughput recovery system. As the Zip enters the recovery system, a wire swiftly extends into a 1.5-centimeter tailhook on the end of every Zip. This recovery system catches and slows the aircraft down to zero in less than a second.

Challenge

To enable true autonomous beyond-visual-line-of-sight (BVLOS) flight, Zipline needed Zips to plan and react to weather events with the same proficiency as a human pilot without any humans involved.

Solution

Zipline built a first-in-kind, high-fidelity, low-altitude wind prediction system that gives Zips the data they need to route autonomously around adverse weather.