Blue Dart conducts drone delivery trials in Telangana

Blue Dart started drone-delivery trials for medical and emergency supplies, as a part of the government’s ‘Medicine from the Sky’ in Vikarabad, Hyderabad, in early September. The initiative aims to provide medical emergency supplies in remote areas through drones.

The logistics company partnered with Indian drone delivery start-up Skye Air Mobility and UK-based startup Altitude Angel, forming the Blue Dart Med-Express Consortium, to conduct the Visual Line of Sight (VLOS) and Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) trials.

In VLOS trials, drones fly between 500 to 700 metres from the base, and can be seen with the naked eye. During BVLOS, drones fly up to 10 kilometres (km). Blue Dart Med-Express is one of eight consortiums that are part of the programme.

“The initiative is aimed at creating a robust healthcare infrastructure for last-mile delivery in the interiors of India,” said Balfour Manuel, Managing Director of Blue Dart, in a statement.

The consortium collaborated with the Government of Telangana, World Economic Forum, NITI Aayog, and HealthNet Global for the project. It was formed to work on vaccine and emergency medicinal delivery through drones in remote areas in the country.

“We wanted to ensure that every individual across the nation receives the healthcare services they deserve,” Ketan Kulkarni, CMO and Head - Business Development, Blue Dart, told EnterpriseStory. “No location should be deprived of a robust healthcare infrastructure due to lack of a last-mile delivery network.”

In India, drones have been used for operations such as photography and mapping. Providing medical supplies offers a new scope, and solves the problem of last-mile delivery in rural areas.

“The key elements that were deterrents in the sector for a long period are now in favour of this development,” Swapnik Jakkampundi, Co-Founder, Skye Air Mobility, said in a statement on September 8. “The environment is optimistic. People have the right mindset, favourable government policy, and aerial technological advancements. Drone delivery will be a game changer very soon.”

India liberalised its drone rules last month, easing some requirements and approvals that are expected to be a major push to the industry. However, drones need multiple components to come together for the successful delivery.

The Med-Express Consortium  integrates over 13 critical components, which enables BVLOS drone flights. The systems include GPS, flight controllers, GCS, 360° Collision Avoidance System, Cold Storage (passive cooling) with a Temperature Logger, 4G on board and much more, Kulkarni said.

Operated by remote pilots, the drone can travel up to 10 km in a single run at a speed of 32 km per hour. These Unmanned Aircraft Systems or drones can deliver and pick up Blue Dart’s specialised temperature-controlled shipments with a payload of up to 5kg from a distribution centre to the specific location, and vice versa.

“The programme will last for 24 days, where four batches would carry out sorties for six days each,” the Ministry of Civil Aviation tweeted. The drones will carry vaccine cold storage boxes equipped with temperature sensors and data loggers to record the performance.

The trials involved the delivery of vaccines from Vikarabad to the primary health care centre in Sidduloor using a multi-rotor drone. “The trials were key in helping us remain future-ready and prepare for a tomorrow that aligns with the technological leaps that can be expected going forward,” said Kulkarni.

“This move helps us ensure that our supply chain will be operational in a highly VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity) environment,” Kulkarni added.

Last-mile delivery in remote corners has its challenges, such as poor transport infrastructure and weather conditions. “Heavy rainfall and wind conditions could affect the drone’s journey,” Kulkarni said.

“While considering drone delivery in deep rural areas, distance of the primary healthcare centres and the target region is important to understand viability of BVLOS operations,” he added.

All this can be effectively operated with special assistance from ATC (Air Traffic Control), and an integrated UTM (Unmanned aircraft system traffic management).