Matternet is going to use autonomous drones to ship blood for blood transfusions and diagnostic samples between hospitals in Switzerland. For this, the company is deploying its Matternet M2 drones.
Matternet is a company focused on developing an autonomous logistics platform based on drones. For this purpose, the company has developed its own drone called the Matternet M2 drone. This drone can move a load of up to 2 kilograms or 4 litres over a distance of 2 kilometres. Besides the Matternet M2 drone, the system consists of Matternet Stations and the Matternet Cloud.
Matternet Station
Both the Matternet M2 drone and the Matternet Cloud have been ready for use for some time. Now Matternet is also launching the latest component of its autonomous logistics platform: the Matternet Station. This station with an area of about 2m² can be placed on the roof of a hospital, for example, and functions as a landing site for the Matternet M2 drone. Users can thus be sure that the drone always lands in a safe place.
Once the M2 drone has landed at the Matternet Station, the drone is locked in place. The drone's charge is then unloaded and a new charge is loaded if necessary. In addition, the drone's batteries are swapped so that the drone can immediately take off again to deliver another charge. This process is entirely automatic, with no human intervention.
Air Traffic Control
The Matternet Station additionally functions as a kind of air traffic control for drones. If several drones fly simultaneously in the immediate vicinity of the station, the Matternet Station prevents the drones from colliding with each other by letting them choose a safe flight path. This therefore allows a large number of packets to be sent simultaneously by the Matternet M2 drones without posing any safety risks.
Anyone wishing to send a parcel can simply have the parcel scanned by the Matternet Station, after which it will be automatically loaded once a Matternet M2 drone has reported to the station. Anyone wishing to receive a parcel delivered to the Matternet Station must have a QR code scanned by the station to do so. The system is linked to the Matternet Cloud, which controls the Matternet M2 drones and generates flight paths for drones, among other things.
Shipping blood and samples
The company already received approval in March 2017 to set up an autonomous drone network for Swiss hospitals. This network will allow blood and diagnostic samples to be moved in a short time in heavily populated areas in Switzerland. The network is being implemented in cooperation with Swiss Post and Swiss hospital group L'Ente Ospedaliero Cantonale (EOC). Earlier, the Matternet M2 drones were tested by two hospitals. Now that the Matternet Station has been launched, the automated system can actually be put into use by Swiss hospitals. Matternet hopes to have established a wide delivery network in Switzerland by 2018.
Matternet's system can also be used for other purposes, by the way. In March 2016, for instance, tests were carried out in Malawi using the company's drones, shipping simulated HIV tests for children. This was a Malawi government project in collaboration with UNICEF aimed at reducing the waiting time for HIV tests.
10,000 Malawian children a year die from HIV
This is of great importance as early diagnosis of HIV helps deliver the right care. In 2014, nearly 40,000 children were born to mothers with HIV in Malawi, while an estimated 10,000 children die from HIV every year. On average, in the African country, it takes 11 days to send samples from the medical centre to a testing laboratory, and in some cases the results of tests are received only after eight weeks. By deploying drones, the Malawi government and UNICEF hope to reduce this time.
Author: Wouter Hoeffnagel
Source: Matternet
