Palletizing drones: Pie in the sky?

Forget Amazon's delivery drones. How about drones that place packages onto pallets? Qimarox, a Netherlands-based maker of material handling equipment, has created a colorful video of drones flying around a warehouse and dropping cartons onto pallets in a staging area. The video was created using industrial simulation modeling software from Emulate 3D.

Drones would require little superstructure or hardware, and so could be rapidly deployed at little expense, Qimarox said in a statement. Because weight would be a limiting factor, this type of system would most likely appeal to high-volume shippers of small parcels. One concern, though, would be battery life. Qimarox said that future improvements in battery technology would make the scheme feasible.

The video can be seen on YouTube.