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Tanzania becomes the latest country to use Zipline drones for medical deliveries
- rabbitonrails 9y agoTanzania launches the world's largest 2015/16 drone-hype VC funding delivery service
- danmaz74 9y agoWhat if, instead, we reached the "slope of enlightenment" and these are useful applications that will lead to the plateau of productivity?
- have_faith 9y ago>the plateau of productivity Google title for a book. Start a kickstarter and get rich $$$.
- Piskvorrr 9y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hype_cycle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hype_cycle
- kogepathic 9y agoThis service has already been running in Rwanda since 2016 with positive results. [0] It's great to see other countries trying out this form of delivery, as rural roads in Africa can be quite bad. I'm interested to see if this trial is successful in Tanzania, given that it's geographically much larger than Rwanda and has a much lower population density. Tanzania: 47.5 persons/km^2 [1] Rwanda: 445 persons/km^2 [2] Rwanda is more dense by an order of magnitude. [0] http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-37646474 http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-37646474 [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanzania https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanzania [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rwanda https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rwanda
- zx76 9y agoI hadn't heard of this service before - all very interesting. I found another article on Wired [1] that gives a good overview. It's unlikely to be an issue in the wide open spaces of these countries - but an autonomous equivalent of the ATC system for drones will be needed when Amazon et al. start doing these deliveries in first world cities. Do you know of any companies working on this problem? [1] https://www.wired.com/2016/05/zipline-drones-rwanda/ https://www.wired.com/2016/05/zipline-drones-rwanda/
- notahacker 9y agoOther news coverage (e.g http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-37646474 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-37646474) suggests that Zipline has some sort of rudimentary reporting to Rwandan ATC already. Presumably a more complex system could be developed allowing coordination of flightplans, remote takeovers etc. I think the real problem is regulatory; any such system is only likely to happen if it has the explicit blessing of a regional Air Traffic Management authority, in which case they're probably more likely to develop, fund and run it than a startup, though there will be a place for technology companies that don't mind working with their procurement cycles and living off grant money for a while. A quick Google suggests US authorities are working on it http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-drone-traffic-20170501-htmlstory.html http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-drone-traffic-20170501... Other drone delivery programs in developing countries have foundered because those countries have refused to give permissions for flights out of security concerns.
- tim333 9y agoThere seem to be some people working on ATC for drones. Google, NASA, "experts at Nanyang Technological University and the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore" etc https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=ATC+system+for+drones https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=ATC+system+for+drones It's quite interesting technically. Regular ATC works by keeping flights quite far apart and separated by 1000ft or more in barometric altitude which wouldn't work with delivery dones but maybe you could use phone style gps location. It's not considered reliable enough for airliners but might be acceptable for drones.
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- atupis 9y agoThere might be other startup opportunities here. Our postal service at least has this where they has to deliver letters 5 days of week and cost can be pretty high https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.posti.fi%2Fprivate-news%2Ftiedotteet%2F2016%2F20161003_posti-toteuttaa-5-paivaista-yleispalvelua-turun-saaristossa.html&edit-text=&act=url https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&pr...
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- lucaspiller 9y agoIt sounds like this is more a political issue rather than a technological issue.
- kwhitefoot 9y agoAt last a real use for drones. And also drones and launch systems well designed for the duty.
- jm666 9y agoAccording to zipline website [0], there will be 4 stations, Mwanza, Geita, Mbeya and Dodoma. Looking on maps, Geita and Mwanza are really close to each other, moreover looks like at least third of potentially covered land around Mwanza is water. Wonder what is the reason behind this. [0] http://www.flyzipline.com/service/ http://www.flyzipline.com/service/
- jessriedel 9y agoIs there more extensive description of what the Medical items delivered actually are? I guess it's mostly just blood?
- seabird 9y agoIt's not just blood, but that's a large portion of it. Flying out supplies really makes sense when you consider material that needs to be refrigerated (like blood). Rural African roads during wet season can be outright unusable; moving stuff can be a matter of weeks just to move something a few miles.
- giarc 9y agoCould also be vaccinations that require a cold chain.
- yawgmoth 9y agoThe company I work for, LLamasoft, works with Zipline to model and optimize their supply chain. We did a press release Aug 30th, if anyone is curious. Fortunately we have had support for different modes of transport for a long time, so adopting drones into our model was trivial. https://www.llamasoft.com/llamasoft-supports-zipline-improve-performance-public-health-supply-chains-using-drones/ https://www.llamasoft.com/llamasoft-supports-zipline-improve...
- viaart 9y agoThere is a relevant drone competition called the UAV Challenge Medical Express where teams have to retrieve a blood sample from a remote location. https://uavchallenge.org/medical-express/ https://uavchallenge.org/medical-express/
- kelvin0 9y agoThis is really a great application for quick transportation to a remote zone, which is so crucial in remote areas. But I can't help think that for each 'good' application, there might be dozens that are not so beneficial, for example : Drugs and Arms delivery across border, just to name few .... I have nothing against the technology, I'm just really curious about it's more 'nefarious' uses.
- mfoy_ 9y agoAny technology can be used in ways the inventor had not intended, and possibly would not wish.
- juiyout 9y agoThis title "...latest..." threw me off a bit. Somehow associated "last" with that. Yet I have no problem when it comes to "latest tech", "latest research". Weird.
- dmix 9y agoIn the video the drone dropped the package on the roof using a small parachute. Many buildings shown there seem to have those walled flat roofs which are accessible via stairs which is also popular in the middle east. That seems to be a critical part for implementing this in an urban delivery system. People will likely need to install some sort of out-of-reach delivery chute on their roof or some sort of box on the buildings to prevent theft. It will make it more expensive to implement but I can't see how deliveries would work without some sort of on-the-ground infrastructure like this. But when it does happen though it will be glorious.
- razster 9y agoIf the drone has a precise drop rate then you could just setup a catch net, then simple lower the net and retrieve the package.
- baldfat 9y agoI think flying drones for home delivery will be the new flying car. I think autonomous road vehicle is the future for cities with an attempt to deliver to the home and then to a central pick up. Reason is money. UPS or the USPS can do it if Amazon and Walmart don't beat them first. Salaries and benefits are the biggest slice of the pie for expenses.
- dmix 9y agoAre automated ground based vehicles really going to out perform automated flight based ones? I can see that for large packages (~50% of current parcel delivery?) but that still leaves all standard envelope based mail and smaller package. Such as books by Amazon or the very broad group of various daily products people would START purchasing online if they could get same day delivery. If we look merely at how things work now - yes - I believe what you're saying makes the most sense. Because it's merely a big optimization of the current systems. But I believe this downplays the innovation that very fast same-day delivery of packages (within a few hours even) that drones could provide. It would seriously expand the scope of services businesses like UPS and Fedex can provide. Suddenly pharmacies, drug dealers, restaurants, local bakeries, convenience stores, gas stations, liquor/wine stores, etc, etc have a new retail venue. Why stop at the busy gas station to fill your cars tank before the daily commute when you can wake up to a prepaid jerry can in your drone box? I'd bet the answer will likely be a combination of both with a much higher volume in the drone delivery side.
- EGreg 9y agoWhile I liks the drone idea, I have to be pedantic here: But that mission can be a challenge during emergencies, times of unexpected demand, bad weather, or for small but critical orders. Um 2-3 out of those four will not be improved by drones! Using drones for just-in-time deliveries will allow us to provide health facilities with complete access to vital medical products no matter the circumstance,” concluded Bwanakunu. Including bad weather eh?
- patrickmclaren 9y agoWhile drones are indeed still susceptible to a multitude of bad weather scenarios in the air, they do bypass several major scenarios on the ground that frequently interrupt supply lines like flooding, fires, avalanches, etc.
- anigbrowl 9y agoYes, including some bad weather scenarios. Drones are likely not great in torrential rain, but things like flooding and fog shouldn't be issues for them whereas they would for drivers. Emergencies (presumably political or military) will bring challenges of their own (since drones could conceivably be doing espionage and might be shot at), but can be routed around, and for times of unexpected demand it's a lot cheaper to store and launch many drones than it is to whistle up many trucks and drivers. OF course the use case is limited at present due to payload limitations and so forth, but is there anyone who doesn't expect that to keep improving?
- mleonhard 9y agoHeavy rains can make dirt roads impassible. This is why transportation to clinics in remote villages becomes unreliable in the rainy season. Example: http://www.frontpageafricaonline.com/images/countynews/bcty-bad-rd.jpg http://www.frontpageafricaonline.com/images/countynews/bcty-...