:00:00. > :00:28.You could be forgiven for thinking that all this talk of drones
:00:29. > :00:30.has just been an excuse to make elaborate adverts
:00:31. > :00:36.Certainly, though, if you believe the hype, it won't be long before
:00:37. > :00:39.drones are doing a lot more than just dropping off
:00:40. > :00:44.Amazon's Prime Air, for example, promises to one day deliver
:00:45. > :00:48.packages to customers within 30 minutes or less.
:00:49. > :00:51.That's if they can make machines safe and convince the commons
:00:52. > :00:58.Despite the promise, so far, drones have pretty much been
:00:59. > :01:04.constrained to wacky research project, and wacky racecourses.
:01:05. > :01:07.It feels to me that we are still waiting to see them come
:01:08. > :01:10.out of the laboratories and into the wild to
:01:11. > :01:14.So, where do you think we are going to go for
:01:15. > :01:18.No. MIT, Boston?
:01:19. > :01:23.No. Dan Simmons is in Rwanda.
:01:24. > :01:33.This drone has beaten the biggest names in tech and retail to become
:01:34. > :01:36.the world's first to offer an ongoing commercial delivery
:01:37. > :01:45.I hung out with the guys in the run-up to the launch,
:01:46. > :01:52.and learned some of the secrets of how they did it.
:01:53. > :01:58.Don't let the West Coast looks fool you - these guys
:01:59. > :02:00.have engineered stuff for SpaceX, Lockheed Martin, Boeing and Google.
:02:01. > :02:04.They operate like the marines in freshers week.
:02:05. > :02:11.Yes, there will be mishaps, but they are focused.
:02:12. > :02:13.Second, don't use a chopper, quadcopter or anything else
:02:14. > :02:19.Fixed wing goes further, faster and is more robust.
:02:20. > :02:24.Right now we have a range of 150 kilometres, round-trip.
:02:25. > :02:28.It allows us to carry a bigger payload and it allows us to fly
:02:29. > :02:31.So we can fly in up to very high winds.
:02:32. > :02:38.To get it off the ground, an elastic rubber cord is wound up
:02:39. > :02:41.and then catapults the drone from zero to 80kph
:02:42. > :02:51.Once it's clear, two propellers click in, taking it up
:02:52. > :02:59.Now, the pilot is the on-board computer.
:03:00. > :03:03.It is following a very precise GPS called an RTK GTS.
:03:04. > :03:09.It gives us precision up to several centimetres, so every time a plane
:03:10. > :03:19.is going out for a mission, it gets a new set of SD cards
:03:20. > :03:21.with a new mission, and then additionally,
:03:22. > :03:24.these SD cards become a black box of the vehicle -
:03:25. > :03:27.things like airspeed, ground speed, temperature of internal components,
:03:28. > :03:31.So if we are off a metre or two in one direction,
:03:32. > :03:34.all things we can feed back into the engineering process.
:03:35. > :03:37.If you are off one metre or two in one direction,
:03:38. > :03:57.It is the preflight handle, the preflight handle impact buffer,
:03:58. > :04:01.Next trick, don't land the thing to drop off the package,
:04:02. > :04:04.When over its target, these barn doors open
:04:05. > :04:08.and four rubber bands ping the cargo out of the hold,
:04:09. > :04:09.which hopefully has one of these attached.
:04:10. > :04:37.as it went over, but something happened and it hasn't worked.
:04:38. > :04:44.Zip dips to make the drop, but will not do so if it
:04:45. > :04:49.It will try ten times before it aborts the mission and goes home.
:04:50. > :04:55.It comes down on what was not a brilliantly operational parachute,
:04:56. > :04:59.I guess, looks like it has come apart.
:05:00. > :05:04.They don't need to worry about the environmental impact
:05:05. > :05:12.This is the blood that will be used by surgeons,
:05:13. > :05:15.possibly to save somebody's life, and as you can see,
:05:16. > :05:25.I expect when we open it, it will be perfectly usable.
:05:26. > :05:28.You have a unique set of challenges in terms of blood
:05:29. > :05:31.and delivering other kinds of medical products,
:05:32. > :05:34.Rwanda is known as the land of a thousand hills,
:05:35. > :05:36.it can be a hard place to get around.
:05:37. > :05:40.We realised it was a place where we could move quickly and do
:05:41. > :05:43.something for the first time in the world, but also a place
:05:44. > :05:47.where the need was very high for something like Zip.
:05:48. > :05:49.While pizza delivery schemes may struggle to justify
:05:50. > :05:52.the cost of using drones, saving the lives of mothers
:05:53. > :05:54.after childbirth, or road accident victims, is something
:05:55. > :06:30.So you actually move the patient, sometimes, rather than actually get
:06:31. > :06:32.the blood to the patient, because it is quicker?
:06:33. > :06:38.Now, the doctor just needs to send a text.
:06:39. > :06:40.The government pays us for each and every flight
:06:41. > :06:44.we do but the really cool thing is that these flights are actually
:06:45. > :06:47.about equal or a little less expensive than the way
:06:48. > :06:48.they were currently doing these deliveries,
:06:49. > :06:56.It's always useful to get yourself a friendly government
:06:57. > :07:04.Rwanda has form - it had fibre broadband ten years ago,
:07:05. > :07:06.was first in Africa to 4G, and the biggest investor
:07:07. > :07:17.We cannot figure out all of the right answers before we start.
:07:18. > :07:21.At the same time, we look at what is at stake,
:07:22. > :07:28.Why have you made different rules for this project?
:07:29. > :07:31.I don't think we have made rules for this project,
:07:32. > :07:41.And what we are setting up for is really an environment
:07:42. > :07:43.which will allow many drones companies to come and
:07:44. > :07:49.operate on a commercial basis, even experiment.
:07:50. > :07:53.Zips fly below passenger plane airspace, and must
:07:54. > :07:54.report their position over the cell network,
:07:55. > :08:07.back to the nest and to air traffic control.
:08:08. > :08:11.And the final tip for drone delivery success, bring it home safely.
:08:12. > :08:14.Zipline plucks its drones from the sky, like they are landing
:08:15. > :08:19.The wire goes up, and the hook at the back of the zip catches...
:08:20. > :08:23.Together with local residents, I looked on, and could not help
:08:24. > :08:25.but admire what this team has achieved,
:08:26. > :08:29.The system relies on one team from the US, so expansion
:08:30. > :08:31.to an ever-increasing waiting list of African countries
:08:32. > :08:37.The drop needs an open but secure target area.
:08:38. > :08:45.We can have a plane ready to fly in less than five minutes.
:08:46. > :08:48.And given drones are more infamous for dropping munitions,
:08:49. > :08:52.seeing the military take an interest made me feel uneasy.
:08:53. > :08:56.Although the technology minister told me that is not the plan.
:08:57. > :08:59.What's happened here is a milestone, a commercially viable drone delivery
:09:00. > :09:02.service has been talked about for years, and now finally,
:09:03. > :09:20.this crack squad have made the drop.
:09:21. > :09:26.This ethereal visitor makes an appearance in Mark Pritchard's
:09:27. > :09:33.Director Michal Marczak tells us what technology technology he's been
:09:34. > :09:38.using to create this haunting, rather alien vision.
:09:39. > :09:42.What I liked about the track is that it was really melancholic.
:09:43. > :09:54.But the vocals of Thom Yorke, they kind of exude a kind of sadness
:09:55. > :09:57.but at the same time something positive comes out of them.
:09:58. > :10:04.What could aliens in the future do to simulate a face?
:10:05. > :10:07.We thought it would be cool to have this utility fog.
:10:08. > :10:10.With thousands of one or two atom particles which can assemble
:10:11. > :10:14.into any form or shape, with a swarm intelligence.
:10:15. > :10:17.So we kind of thought that we would do these little
:10:18. > :10:19.metallic, hundreds of thousands of metallic particles,
:10:20. > :10:32.We hacked a Kinect, that is what we used
:10:33. > :10:39.so we had to develop a technique to mellow it all out,
:10:40. > :10:41.it does not handle spikes, which are associated
:10:42. > :10:45.And then to turn that into a strong message,
:10:46. > :10:50.which we can then simulate with particle simulation.
:10:51. > :10:57.To get the right shot, it was a couple of days of work.
:10:58. > :11:01.I can't wait for that moment where you can have the camera,
:11:02. > :11:03.there, and augmented reality of what I am getting,
:11:04. > :11:06.and really playing the visual effects of reality, and so this
:11:07. > :11:09.particle selection is reflecting off the light at this moment,
:11:10. > :11:12.something in the background is matching it and then are adding
:11:13. > :11:28.That is it for your short version this week. The full-length version
:11:29. > :11:32.is on a player right now. You can follow us on Twitter throughout the
:11:33. > :11:34.week for loads of backstage photos and fun. Thank you for watching. We
:11:35. > :11:37.will see you soon.