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UPS Is Using Drones To Transport Medical Supplies Between Hospitals (cnbc.com)
UPS has partnered with autonomous drone company Matternet and hospital WakeMed in Raleigh, North Carolina, to test a new drone delivery service for transporting medical samples to nearby facilities. The FAA is overseeing the program. CNBC reports: UPS said the service will utilize Matternet's M2 "quadcopter" drone, which can carry medical samples of up to 5 pounds as far as 12.5 miles. The program will begin with "numerous planned daily revenue flights at the WakeMed Raleigh campus," UPS said. The drone delivery service aims to replace WakeMed's reliance on a fleet of courier cars, which currently transports most of the hospital's medical samples. Using a UPS "secure drone container," WakeMed employees can load medical specimens like blood samples and send them quickly to a nearby WakeMed facility.
Matternet has completed "more than 3,000 flights for healthcare systems in Switzerland," UPS added. The WakeMed program is also under the FAA's broader effort called the "Unmanned Aircraft System Integration Pilot Program," which "aims to test practical applications of drones by partnering local governments with private sector companies."
Matternet has completed "more than 3,000 flights for healthcare systems in Switzerland," UPS added. The WakeMed program is also under the FAA's broader effort called the "Unmanned Aircraft System Integration Pilot Program," which "aims to test practical applications of drones by partnering local governments with private sector companies."
Finally a good use for drone delivery. Sending small, time sensitive, cargos between two fixed points. Finally a use case that actually makes sense.
First law of people: People are generally stupid.
You get blown up by a claymore or something but in your backpack is a swarm of little surgeon drones that find all the pieces, sorts them by DNA in case your buddy got blown up too, glues you back together and restarts your heart, all before hypoxia begins to cause brain damage. Then a week or two later you're doing patrols again.
Any sufficiently unpopular but cohesive argument is indistinguishable from trolling.
Drones, just like self-driving cars, should be outlawed. Way too dangerous. When did I consent to putting my life and the lives of my family at risk from these threats? Never.
Look Out Below.......
To you, it's medical supplies.
Just saying.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Seems like birds might pose a huge problem to this, particularly in US urban areas - I'm not sure if Switzerland, the test bed, has the same city pigeon problem we have in the US. All it will take is 1 person being hit with 20#'s of bird strike wrecked, sky fall, blood soaked, detritus, for this project to be eaten alive by attorneys and lawsuits.
The title states "supplies", the article says "samples". If it is actually samples, I have a big issue with people flying "red bag" materials with drones.
Finally a good use for drone delivery. Sending small, time sensitive, cargos between two fixed points. Finally a use case that actually makes sense.
It probably makes sense. You would actually need to consider the cost--in lives and finances--of the extra delay of street-bound traffic under the distribution of expected traffic conditions to be sure. There are plenty of hospitals where 99%+ of blood work will not be evaluated as soon as it is available, and where trends in bloodwork won't even be noticed until an indicator hits a critical range. OTOH, if you have something like suspected cdiff, getting the result faster might let you move the patient out of isolation faster, which saves a lot of hospital beds if you are using semi-private (2 patients per room) rooms in your hospital.
The headline implies that these deliveries are being made in volume and consistently RIGHT NOW. The summary clarified that UPS has PARTNERED with another company and are PLANNING some TEST FLIGHTS.
That is very, very non-commital.
This type of journalism perpetuates tech myths with the massive population that knows enough to recognize shallow tech concepts but with almost no understanding of the actual state of the technology in question.
This kind of journalism is what will convinces people to invest their retirement funds in vaporware.
Between futurist articles making design concepts seem like reality, BS initial coin offerings, and venture-capital backed app services sounding like great investments because of amazing valuations despite no expectation of turning a profit EVER, we are doing a massive disservice to the less-knowledgeable when we exagerate the realities of tech.
Autonomous aerial delivery of packages to buildings in congested areas like Manhattan and San Francisco would significantly reduce the impact of those deliveries on local infrastructure, like roads and bridges. Individual delivery to your door is not the only economical use of this technology.
A couple of small thoughts occur. When drone deliveries of lightweight items become routine between multiple points in any metropolitan area, inevitably expanding beyond hospitals and other limited applications, illegal drug dealers will naturally hop on that bandwagon. Why wouldn't they? One more drone zipping along inside a virtual cloud of them won't stand out. Increasing sophistication in autopilot capabilities over wider and wider areas will allow illicit dealers to decrease the risk of their runners or their own precious selves being arrested. Maybe criminal hackers will even bamboozle hospital computer systems into delivering hospital narcotics and other high-value pharmaceuticals to one-time pickup points.
Still, drones are cool. It'd be fun to accept a prescription drug delivery from a second-floor window. Such low-cost delivery methods might work well for bedridden or frail patients living alone. I can also see drones flying around a house, peering into the windows for signs of life if a home security system indicates that the inhabitant hasn't been anywhere near as active as usual. That service can be part of a commercial package that includes the usual medical alert devices. A severe heart attack or stroke might prevent a patient from using an alert device.
Anyways. Point-to-point interchanges between hospitals seem like a good application. I do wonder about liability issues as mentioned by others here, but then, liability issues arise with motor-vehicle deliveries. A car or truck is way more smashy than a ten-pound drone, plus I'm sure a well-designed drone will cut off the spinning blades and blare a loud alarm when it detects an imminent, uncontrolled approach to ground level. Insurance covers the rare serious accident. Everything in life is risky. It's a tradeoff.
A truly excellent pizza parlor is a delight unto the heavens. Treasure the sauce and the toppings!
Curious how much wind/rain/snow/hail a drone could handle.
In calm, warm weather a drone performs just fine. Any gusting of wind and a light weight drone goes tumbling.
According to my drone flight planning app, B4UFly, provided by the FAA, the WakeMed Raleigh campus is in 5 no-fly zones. These are from helipads, like the one at WakeMed. How is it they get to fly in a no-fly zone?
I've always wanted to start an Cannabis drone delivery system locally but I live within the UK and am therefore just considered another rat in the maze..
But it's a bloody good idea, could also arm the drone with fireworks rockets hooked up with a PWM and boom Air-to-Surface protection too!
Maybe I could start a local drone battle group in the local park :D
**Tenner a gram, cash only monday to friday and no tick on sunday!!!
before it starts raining needles.
Not that I'm against this at all. I'm just a fan of Murphy's Law.
1) Drone takes off from facility, carrying medical supplies.
2) Drone arrives at hospital.
3) Instead of actually dropping off the medical supplies, it prints a tag saying "Sorry we missed you!" and sticks it to the front door to the E.R.
4) Doctors now have a choice to drive down to the warehouse to pick up what the drone should have dropped off, or wait until the next day for the drone to try again.