Unmanned drones to slash NHS delivery times to one-fifth of road 'n' rail transport
- Reference: 1590504071
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/05/26/drone_deliveries_bvlos_isle_mull/
- Source link:
Backed by the local NHS trust, drone firm Skyports will fly drones between the Isle of Mull and Oban, the closest town on the Scottish mainland.
"Our trial in Argyll and Bute provides an important short-term response to the current pandemic and lays the foundations from which to grow a permanent drone delivery operation across a network of healthcare facilities around the country," said Skyports chief exec Duncan Walker.
His company will fly unmanned delivery drones made by German company Wingcopter. The craft will fly the 17km (10.5 miles) between Lorn and Isles hospital in Oban and Iona Community Hospital in Craignure. A lengthy journey by road and ferry, Skyports reckons it will take just 15 minutes by drone.
Average projected speeds of 40mph (64kph) for the drone compare very favourably with Google Maps' guesstimate of an hour and a quarter to cover the 12 miles (about 19km, including roads) via the ferry between Oban and Craignure.
The trial will take place over the next fortnight, finishing in the first week of June. While it makes perfect sense to fly in the height of summer when the weather is good, The Register notes that BVLOS flights in the depths of a typical Scottish winter might not turn out so well; drones are small, light and vulnerable to bad weather.
Eye-catchingly, the trial will take place using beyond-visual-line-of-sight (BVLOS) rules, requiring special permission from the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA). Drone flights that go beyond the operator's line of sight are normally prohibited; however, the main perceived benefit of aviation drones cannot be realised until the tech is proven safe enough to be flown without a watchful human nearby in case of collisions.
A few years ago the Ministry of Defence [1]weighed in on the BVLOS debate , having secured some limited exemptions to get its unmanned Predator Protector drones into British skies. With a former head of the Royal Air Force having been [2]recently appointed chairman of the CAA , with a brief to encourage "technology development", the number of commercial BVLOS drone flights in the UK will doubtless increase – slowly but surely – in the coming years. ®
[1] https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/02/12/predator_drone_approval_airway_flights_uk/
[2] https://www.travelweekly.co.uk/articles/370520/former-raf-chief-to-become-new-caa-chair
Re: Payload?
That joke is in poor taste. Assume you are joking?
Re: Payload?
Less a joke than an observation of the direction governments and the people they are meant to serve are going in.
Re: Payload?
Let me google that for you...
https://wingcopter.com/technology
45 km range with 6 kg (max payload) @150km/h top speed and can cope with 15m/s winds and 20m/s gusts (about Force 7, gusting 8, so able to deal with a good blow by sea-side standards)
Um drone deliverys to the Isle or Wight have be trialed with the first flight on the 9th of May.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-52419705
https://www.southampton.ac.uk/news/2020/05/drone-trial-delivery.page
Fixed wing UAV with a 100kg payload capacity, landing on a grass runway from the news footage I saw.
Not sure is it out of line of sight, theres a "safety pilot" at each end of the link and the flight is protected by a temporary (90 day) "danger area" exclusion zone.
Yes, lands on the Island at Binstead, oddly, which is in the midst of an area of MAMBA so no great loss if anything happens there even though it is then a nightmare by car/bike to St Mary's hospital. On the mainland they seem to be using Lee-on-Solent which gives them lots of flexibility on flight planning.
Quite impressed with the design as it seems to be very much based on the idea of goof capacity/minimal frills with an excellent view from the camera in the tailplane in case someone has to step in and take control.
Seems to me
It seems to me to be a far better, and cheaper solution would be to send the stuff by Royal Mail. It's for sure that if the Post won't get through it's a foregone conclusion that a drone isn't going to make it, either. Seems to me the usual endless search for ways to spend (waste) the money. In any case, I don't recollect a road 'n rail connection to the mentioned location that the drone system could be five times faster than.
Re: Seems to me
Likewise, how often is a delivery so urgent that they need an unmanned drone? Depending on it's maximum payload, it may actually be a very rare occurrence that payload limit plus urgency plus weather conditions actually makes this a viable solution.
Sending CV-19 tests over seems like a marketing gimmick. These are sort of items that in the current situation should be hand. There should not b e a need for an emergency delivery.
Re: Seems to me
I don't recollect a road 'n rail connection to the mentioned location
Unless you include the CalMac ferry in the road bit there isn't either a road or rail connection to Craignure from Oban. Maybe they should build a tunnel instead...
.. deliver coronavirus testing kits to a remote Scottish hospital
Looks like another bloody excuse for Dominic Cummings to go on holiday to me.
Re: .. deliver coronavirus testing kits to a remote Scottish hospital
> Looks like another bloody excuse for Dominic Cummings to go on holiday to me.
"No officer, of course I haven't gone to Oban for a holiday. Actually I'm checking my eyesight using this beyond-visual-line-of-sight drone..."
[Icon: if he'd gone to an optician he'd have been asked to cover up one eye at a time.]
> Likewise, how often is a delivery so urgent that they need an unmanned drone?
Now that organ donation is presumed rather than consented to, potentially there is an urgent collection every time someone dies of something other than disease or old-age in a remote hospital?
Payload?
The article didn't say how much these drones can carry.
However, this use maked far more sense than pizza dilivery or dropping an amazon packet on your roof.
Perhaps they can fit them with a dart gun so that people can be vaccinated from the air before they can run into the hills to hide.