Page 34 - GCN, June/July 2018

EMERGING TECH
Making drone deliveries a reality
BY MATT LEONARD
The North Carolina Department of Transportation has been using drones since 2016 in a variety of functions, including photogrammetry and general imaging. The agency has grown its fleet to 15 drones and helped develop a statewide training program at com- munity colleges. Its latest foray into drones, though, came when it was chosen to participate in the Unmanned Aircraft Systems Integration Pilot Program led by the Federal Aviation Administration.
NCDOT wants to test multiple drone applications during the two-and-a-half- year pilot program, but its priority is an application that has garnered signifi- cant public attention: drone delivery. In North Carolina’s case, it would be the delivery of medical supplies.
“In the end, we want package de-
livery that is beyond line of sight, that is also over people” and can happen during the day or at night, said Basil Yap, UAS program manager at NCDOT. An added bonus would be the ability to have a single pilot oversee multiple drones.
North Carolina officials will work with two companies that have ex- perience with drone-based delivery
of medical supplies. Matternet has delivered medical supplies in Switzer- land, and Zipline has done the same in Rwanda. Between the two, they have logged thousands of drone flight hours, Yap said.
In North Carolina, the drones will deliver “high-value, time-sensitive medical packages” that include blood, urine samples and pharmaceuticals, he added. The drones can carry up to five pounds, and Zipline can operate in a
50- to 60-mile radius.
The exact process for how the deliv-
eries will happen has yet to be deter- mined, but hospitals’ existing logistical software will likely be integrated with software from Matternet or Zipline, Yap said. NCDOT plans to begin medical delivery operations in August.
Which hospitals will be part of the network is another decision that still needs to be made. The state plans
to pick “some strategic facilities to start with and build it out over time,” Yap said. But the Research Triangle
— made up of Durham, Raleigh and Chapel Hill — is part of the reason officials decided to make medical de- livery their main priority. That area is home to three large research hospitals: WakeMed, UNC Medical Center and Duke University Hospital.
“What we’re doing right now is estab-
34 GCN JUNE/JULY 2018 • GCN.COM
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