Amazon Prime Air in November launched its most advanced delivery drone in Arizona’s West Valley Phoenix Metro Area and College Station, TX, after an aerospace design and verification process resulted in a vehicle that can travel two times farther and is significantly quieter than the company’s previous drones.
Amazon launched the new drones in Arizona’s West Valley Phoenix Metro Area and College Station, TX. In a blog post, Amazon noted consumers within the delivery range can purchase an eligible item weighing five pounds or less and have the new drone drop off their packages in 60 minutes or less in safe locations associated with select addresses.
According to the company, MK30’s operational certification represents a milestone in the Amazon quest to have drones deliver 500 million packages globally by decade’s end. In October, MK30 won FAA approval to begin delivery to customers including permission to fly beyond visual line of sight using Prime Air’s on-board detect and avoid system, which Amazon characterized as an industry first.
In this Amazon application of technology, Prime Air engineers and aerospace experts spent almost two years building the MK30 from scratch, starting with safety and reliability criteria that guided development of a perception system to detect and avoid obstacles, Amazon indicated. The drone incorporates redundant flight-critical systems that, according to Amazon, ensure no single point of failure can cause loss of drone control.
The development team tested the drone for basic flight functions to validate aerodynamic and flight control models. Cameras built in as a part of the perception system can assess whether the drone should make in-flight evasive maneuvers to avoid other aircraft that may enter the drone’s vicinity. The perception system includes advanced machine learning algorithms trained to accurately identify objects such as humans, animals, obstacles and other aircraft, Amazon stated.
If the new drone detects anomalies mid-flight, an internal monitoring system can immediately transfer drone control to a backup operator and trigger a safe return-to-home sequence.
Stephen Wells, Prime Air team chief project engineer, said the MK30 “is the first drone we have developed from the ground up using a requirements-based process including more stringent requirements that will allow us to eventually reach a half billion customers annually. We designed it with aerospace levels of reliability and redundancy.”
Wells added, “The machine learning and the trained algorithms that we produce for the perception system are cutting-edge. But it takes the whole integrated system to achieve our safety objectives. The redundant navigation and control system, and the health monitoring system, are truly industry-leading.”
