Amazon shows off top-secret drone lab in Cambridge

Can you imagine a future where the sound of an approaching drone does not instill fear but excitement? Instead of dropping bombs and firing missiles, drones in the future will come bearing packages from retails such as Amazon.

Last week Amazon invited a local paper along with nine primary school students to its top-secret Drone lab in Cambridge, England.

The research and development facility called ‘The Lab’ located at the Castle Park business estate is where the internet retailer is working on the Amazon Prime Air Service which will allow the retailer to deliver packages under 2 kilograms up to a distance of 15 miles at speeds close to 80km/h in under 30 minutes.

With other development facilities in the US, Austria and Israel, the facility in Cambridge is said to be the largest of all. It is also rumoured that the Cambridge facility is not the only one in England but no one knows where the other secret facilities are located.

Using GPS coordinates to locate the delivery address the drones will fly to a maximum height of 400 feet and will land only at an identifying marker.

+4

But is it Safe?

The drones will also be equipped with sensors to detect and avoid collisions during flight and when landing. While the drone will fly autonomously it will be monitored by a safety operator who it is said in future will monitor multiple drones at once.

Speaking to Cambridge News, Prime Air’s corporate communications officer Kirsten Kish said, “If there are any obstacles that are in the way like a tree, through its sense and avoid system it can navigate around those."

“There are those unexpected obstacles that can roll in unexpected, if it's started to land then it goes straight up again,” she said while adding, “we would rather not deliver the package then risk the safety.”

While Amazon has not revealed when the Prime Air service will be launched, it will be only after the retailer has demonstrated that it is in fact a safe delivery method.

Even after proving the method safe, customers will still have a choice whether to opt for drone delivery through Prime Air or use the existing regular delivery method.

Amazon may have opened up the doors to its research and development facility for the first time, but the concept has been teased by Amazon for some time. Here is one such teaser posted last November by Amazon on YouTube. 

Ovais Jafar is a Multimedia Journalist, he tweets as @ovaisjafar