Beehive Towers For Drones: This Is What Amazon’s Drone Fulfillment Center Could Look Like

Amazon beehive drone fulfillment center
Photo credit: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
A Rendering Of Amazon's Beehive-Style Drone Fulfillment Center.

Amazon Technologies Inc. is planning to take drone deliveries to the next level ... an eye-catching conical level. The e-commerce giant filed for a patent to build multi-level beehive-shaped towers for drone distribution and fulfillment.

If approved, these towers would be built to support the distribution of products in densely populated cities by unmanned aerial vehicles, or simply put, drones. This would include creating takeoff and landing platforms for drones.

Check out renderings of these cylinder-shaped towers next.

A rendering of Amazon's beehive-style drone fulfillment center.
Photo credit: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
A rendering of Amazon's beehive-style drone fulfillment center

Unlike traditional centers on the outskirts of cities, Amazon wants these fulfillment centers to be concentrated in urban markets with dense populations, making speedy deliveries possible.

A rendering of Amazon's beehive-style drone fulfillment center.
Photo credit: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
A rendering of Amazon's beehive-style drone fulfillment center.

The patent was filed in December 2015, and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office published the application June 23. The towers Amazon imagines will be filled with robots that will restock the drones before they fly to deliveries.

A rendering of Amazon's beehive-style drone fulfillment center.
Photo credit: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
A rendering of Amazon's beehive-style drone fulfillment center.

Much like hives of busy worker bees leaving to gather honey, these multi-leveled towers would act as a central hub for drones making deliveries to nearby shoppers. The towers are supposed to blend in with the urban environment surrounding it, the patent reads.

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