Amazon was granted patent for Echo Home Device

Today the U.S. patent and trademark office officially published granted patent for a Drone platform and the original ground breaking Echo digital assistant home device. In amazons first granted patent they describe a new mobile cross dock. Amazon notes that the item on a large tractor trailer inbounds to a large metropolis may be separated and moved into smaller delivery vehicles for delivery to smaller cities. Separating and moving the item on tractor trailer requires a facility. Given the need of productivity and speed in a modern supply chain, the movement of items from one vehicle to another remains problematic in term of shipping logistic.

Description

Amazons invention covers a mobile crossdock system comprising one or more containers aligned in a configuration to form a mobile crossdock for mobile crossdock operation. The one or more container are detachably attached to a platform such as vehicle trailer. Further the one or more containers may comprise a first side having a first plurality of openings and a second side having a second plurality of opening. A plurality of doors is aligned with first plurality of opening and the second plurality of opening and is configured to move between a closed position and an open position. A plurality of ramps are configured to lift or raise a rear end of vehicle to a position where a cargo area of vehicle is substantially aligned with a floor of mobile cross dock.

The one part of patent that was of any interest, illustrates a mobile crossdock comprising a drone platform or a landing pad configured to facilitate delivery of materials to the mobile crossdock by one or more drones or other aerial vehicles.

In the non limiting example, a drone may comprise an autonomous, semi autonomous or manually controlled aerial vehicle. In various embodiments, the drone may further comprise a cargo hold comprising material used in crossdock operations. To this end, the cross dock may comprise the drone platform on a roof of mobile cross dock or in other proximate locations.

Amazons grant of second patent

Amazons second patent of interest was their original ECHO, home digital assistant device, we do not have much details about the patent.