Udaan, Throttle Aerospace Systems complete trial-run for drone delivery of medicines

B2B e-commerce company Udaan and Throttle Aerospace Systems (TAS) on Friday said the organisations completed a trial run for drone delivery of medicines in Bengaluru. The pilot was led by (TAS) and Udaan under the supervision of the Director-General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), a statement said. The trial was conducted within a 15-km radius at Gauribidanur in the outskirts of Bengaluru by Udaan for the last mile delivery of medicines, it added.

During the pilot, two variants of drones were successfully tested – Medcopter X4 and Medcopter X8 – with simulated deliveries to Udaan customers. As a use case, Pharma Deliveries of up to 2kg payload were tested at various distances in the designated area varying from 2-7 kms aerial distance. The pilot deliveries saw an average of 3.5 kms distance being covered in 5-7 minutes. Two different modes of deliveries were also tested – tethered lowering of shipment and landing of copter with the shipment, the statement said.

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The success of the pilot run opens up the possibility of using beyond-line-of-sight drones for last-mile delivery of shipments in minimum time, to areas with improper road connectivity as well as faster deliveries in dense urban settings, it added. Once commercialised, in addition to regular deliveries in remote areas, the technology can also be used to supply lifesaving drugs and medicines at the time of the natural disaster, pandemics, and calamities to the remotest corners of the country without facing any infrastructure or logistical challenges.

“The efforts by the authorities to integrate drones in the supply-chain ecosystem is a major step towards creating a framework for efficient last-mile delivery. The success of today’s trial run opens a massive opportunity to revolutionise customer experience in the distribution and logistics space,” Udaan Product Engineer Soumyadeep Mukherjee said.

It is aligned with Udaan’s vision to build tech-enabled solutions to empower small businesses such as kiranas, shop owners, chemists, and MSMEs (Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises) that are based in the remote corners of Bharat, he added. Bengaluru-based TAS is India’s first DGCA approved drone maker for civil drones and having a licence to manufacture military drones from the Ministry of Defence.