The system I propose would be for delivering goods. it is in essence a really simple monorail system similar to the Shweeb. It would be much like railway systems but simpler and for lower volumes of goods. the rail on which the cars ride is simply a long pipe with a groove cut in the bottom. it is suspended from existing utility poles with multiple cables similar to existing cable stayed bridges so as to keep the track as flat as possible while cars pass. Several electrical leads would run along the inside of the pipe and would be connected to power lines also suspended to said utility poles. the rails can be branched and merged easily using y junctions. tracks go all the way to the home, where they can be retrieved automatically by an add on system or simply given authorization (digital signature or the like) to come down.

The cars would be made up of several parts, Two wheel carriages, which rest inside the pipe, connected to a body of sorts. both wheel cariages have integrated barcode scanners. The body has some means for attaching cargo of sorts and it contains a motor with which to drive the car.

To deploy said system do what they did for the railroads, use the tracks to deliver more tracks. the difference here would be that the track would weigh very little and the supports on which to hang them (utility poles) would already be in place.
-- RichardT, Jan 04 2010

Pneumatic Messaging Systems http://www.dself.ds...eumess/pneumess.htm
This idea reminds me of these old schemes. [Wrongfellow, Jan 04 2010]

Physical Internet physical_20internet
Prior Art [8th of 7, Jan 04 2010]

Shweeb monorail http://www.shweeb.com/
a passenger powered hanging monorail [RichardT, Jan 04 2010]

//cars would resemble 60 gallon drums.// That's pretty big piping. The existing infrastructure is designed to support cables - have you estimated how much the structural upgrades would be?
Some capital letters and line breaks would be nice.
Welcome to the HB.
-- coprocephalous, Jan 04 2010


So where's the system that delivers this monorail system? Or have I missed a level of recursiveness somewhere?
-- wagster, Jan 04 2010


current utility poles hold the weight of the people that work on them (from time to time) they are really really sturdy and the cargo would be under 50 lbs(maybe a few pizzas). As for the rail itself it needn't be any bigger than 5cm in internal diameter. I am not talking about a system where the canister sits inside the rail but rather where the canister hangs under the rail. Sorry for formatting issues. I hope the last edit helps. I just wanted to put the idea out there this morning. It evidently is out there already. Though I hope this is simple and robust enough to implement.

As for how the system is delivered ,the parts themselves (Plastic rail, cables, metal supports) can obviously be shipped using the system itself, with the exception of the utility poles of course, but I think you might be able to make a robot to install it. The robot would have to have GPS and laser terrain scanning. The robot rides on the rail it builds as it installs it. first the robot encounters a section in which it needs to install the rail system. I thing the simplest way to do the installation would be to package the cables, precut to the proper length(a scanning van will pass by (maybe a cooperative project with Google) and scan the utility poles beforehand so needed data can be gathered.) so, the robot unpackages the cables attaches them to needed supports and trundles over to the other side to install supports and cables there. then it snaps on the plastic rails. and connects leads for power and grounding to said plastic rails. It keeps on going and it's trailing end follows all the while imprinting navigational bar codes.

Maintenance robots similar to this one could check installed rails for damage after installation, reaply faded or unreadable navigational bar codes and or call for material and or more advanced maintenance robots via cellular link.
-- RichardT, Jan 04 2010


How do you prevent stepladder-equipped "entrepreneurs" from grabbing passing containers and abstracting the contents ?
-- 8th of 7, Jan 04 2010


The tracks would be installed well above the street(at least 4m). the support brackets would allow them to be hung next to the electrical wires(60 hertz sounds tend to repel people). The containers themselves would have to be locked to the cars until authorization is given to drop (electronic security) with randomly placed ink tags added to all containers that burst upon forced entry(denial of reward. Not just secured with a simple latch. also the cars would be well attached to their tracks, I doubt anyone will be removing them unless they bring a sledge hammer or a hacksaw (go ahead though saw through the tracks, I dare you }:) make sure to use a full metal hacksaw though!
-- RichardT, Jan 04 2010



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