What is being hailed as the world’s first commercial regular drone delivery service is beginning drop-offs in Rwanda.
The operation uses fixed-wing drones that automatically fly to destinations in the central African nation.
They release small packages attached to parachutes without needing to land at the delivery points before returning.
The technology promises to make deliveries much faster than had previously been possible by road.
Zipline – the US start-up
The team running the project consists of engineers who previously worked at Space X, Google, Lockheed Martin, and other tech companies. They will utilize drones to deliver blood, plasma, and coagulants to hospitals in rural western Rwanda, significantly reducing waiting times from hours to minutes. For safety purposes, the team launches the aircraft using a catapult and operates them below 500ft (152m) to avoid the airspace used by passenger planes.
They have an operational range of 150km (93 miles) but could, in theory, fly almost twice that distance.
A nose-mounted battery powers the drones, while they navigate autonomously using GPS location data.
They send back information to both their base and to Rwandan air traffic control via a cellular connection.
To begin with, 15 “zips” will fly round the clock and in up to 30km/h (19mph) winds and light rain if necessary.
The Rwanda health department will pay Zipline on a per delivery basis.
The company says the cost per trip is roughly equal to that of the current delivery method, by motorbike or ambulance.
A wide variety of companies – including Amazon, DHL and Singapore Post – have demonstrated drone deliveries elsewhere that use aircraft that can touch down at both ends of their journey.
But one expert praised Zipline’s stay-in-the-air approach.
“This avoids the risk of recipients getting in the way of rotating blades,” said Dr Ravi Vaidyanathan, from Imperial College London.
“This sounds like a positive environment to begin drone deliveries,” said the spokesperson, emphasizing that as long as there is no risk of a plane falling from the sky or any danger posed by a package dropping on anyone.
But some aid workers have expressed concern that they are not always appropriate.
“Whether we like it or not, UAVs [unmanned aerial vehicles] are confused with weaponised drones and are perceived by the general public as related to military operations and/or intelligence gathering,” one Congo-based worker told a studycarried out by a Swiss foundation.
“In countries and contexts with conflict environment, it is illusory to imagine that the general public, authorities and the armed actors will make a distinction between good ‘humanitarian/civilian’ drones and bad ‘military’ drones.”
Although Rwanda’s military has shown interest in Zipline’s work, the country’s information and communications technology minister has said it has no plans for the defence department to use the technology.
