SEATTLE: Amazon has revealed a new drone which it says can fly in and deliver items, including prescription medicines, to homes and apartment buildings 60 minutes after an order is placed.
The advanced MK30 can carry a package the size of a shoe box, with a maximum load of 2.3kgs, and drop it off at traditionally difficult-to-reach areas.
"While the size and weight might sound small ... it represents the vast percentage of what our customers want," David Carbon, vice president of Prime Air, told media today.
"We've been operating for the last 12 months and what we've found out is that customers need an order of AA batteries, health products and [pharmacy] goods more than anything else, and they love getting them in under 60 minutes."
Carbon, an Australian who previously worked at Boeing and now heads Amazon's drone delivery program Prime Air, said the MK30 proved it was "magnitudes safer" than driving to the shops during extensive test flights.
The drone had delivered thousands of packages in testing, Carbon said, and the aircraft's machine learning and vision system had safely detected unexpected obstacles "100 per cent of the time".
"The beauty of this perception system is that it detects and avoids objects, even if they weren't there the day before, such as ... a freshly planted tree or a crane that's been moved into our path."
The drones have been operational for Amazon for the last year in two US locations, Lockeford in California and College Station, Texas.
Amazon today announced it was extending its drone program internationally, with aerial deliveries for customers in Italy, the UK, and an additional US city by the end of next year.
The MK30, which can fly twice as far as previous Amazon drones, are operated out of same-day delivery sites.
Not only can the MK30 deliver to small backyards and courtyards, Carbon said the "autonomous electric masterpiece of technology" can transport packages to drop sites at apartment buildings.
The drone's capabilities, and its ability to navigate wind gusts and light rain, is the result of "millions of simulations" and thousands of test flights, Carbon said.
Aerospace and engineers in Prime Air had crunched data sets numbering in the hundreds of thousands, Amazon said.
Illustrating how the drone will be utilised in the future, Amazon said customers living in College Station, the test location in Texas, can now get prescription medications dropped outside their door, relieving the burden on sick, elderly and isolated people.
It will also, Amazon said, narrow what is known as "the golden window" in medicine, the time between a patient feeling unwell and when they're able to get treatment.
Up to 500 medications can be delivered to College Station residents by drone.
A hurdle for Amazon's drone ambitions to date has been aviation regulators in various countries, concerned about the safety of fleets of unmanned aircraft in the skies.
Amazon said it has been working closely with regulators and governments around the world to expand drone delivery.
Regulators in the UK and Italy both indicated they want to work with Amazon to establish how drones can be safely incorporated into their airspace.
How the Amazon drone delivers
The drones fly at an altitude of 40 to 120 metres - an airspace deemed to have minimal obstacles.
The drone's built-in sense-and-avoid technology uses sensors and cameras to navigate around people, pets, and power lines.
Drone cameras feed into a neural network trained to identify objects.
On arrival at a customer's home, the drone lowers itself above a delivery marker.
Computer vision detects any structures or objects protruding from the ground - including people and animals - and checks if the descent path is clear.
When the delivery zone is clear, the drone releases the package, rises up and returns to the delivery centre.
The reporter travelled to Seattle for the 'Delivering the Future' media event as a guest of Amazon. Amazon did not pay for this content.
