Robotics researchers at Seoul National University have developed the Palletrone, a sort of flying shopping cart. Drones beneath the loading surface, surrounded by a cage, do the lifting. You do the guiding.
“The platform is designed with a spacious upper flat surface for easy cargo loading, complemented by a rear-mounted handle reminiscent of a shopping cart. Flight trajectory control is achieved by a human operator gripping the handle and applying three-dimensional forces and torques, while maintaining a stable cargo transport with zero roll and pitch attitude throughout the flight.”
It even stays steady during loading and unloading:
IEEE Spectrum reports that in the footage, the Palletrone is carrying “just under 3 kilograms of cargo,” so six pounds and change. In other words, Costco won’t be getting these in, at least not anytime soon.
Which do you think we’ll see first in our lifetime, flying cars, or flying carts?