Swedish company Everdrone has completed the first autonomous drone delivery between two hospitals in Gothenburg, Sweden. The delivery drone transported a medical payload a distance of 4.4 km using onboard sensors and limited GPS.
Everdrone completes first GPS-free drone delivery in Sweden
Everdrone, a software and drone service developer, transported medical supplies earlier this month by drone between Sahlgrenska Hospital and Mölndal Hospital in Gothenburg, Sweden.
Due to the nature of the flight, the drone was unable to use GPS to assist the landing, forcing Everdrone to equip its drone with an array of sensors. The sensors include an ADS-B receiver, a 360-degree camera, and drone telemetry. The 4.4-km flight took place over fields, properties, and roads.
The flight was completed on July 9 by Everdrone in collaboration with Innovation Platform, a company combining healthcare, academia, and life sciences. The flight is a part of research efforts both companies are involved in to find new ways to deliver organs to patients. Everdrone’s CEO Mats Sällström stated that the successful drone delivery was a major step in the right direction, proving drones can reliably and safely deliver medical payloads to patients.
“A major step forward in turning the concept into reality was taken last week when we successfully performed a number of fully autonomous drone flights in fully realistic environments,” said Mats Sällström, Everdrone CEO.
While Innovation Platform’s project manager, Magnus Kristiansson, says the drone technology being used allows for shorter transport times, it is also more environmentally friendly.
“The primary purpose with this project is to evaluate the possibility of time savings, but we also see opportunities when it comes to making transportation more environmentally friendly and also reducing costs,” said Kristiansson.
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The article was edited on August 24, 2019 at 9:43am.
The edit was “no GPS” to “limited GPS” in last sentence of the first paragraph.
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