Drones and the Future | Robert Fall

Humanitarian Use Cases for Drones:

Elsight | Humanitarian Missions and Disaster Relief with UAVs

The Positive Effect of UAV Missions:

Unmanned aircraft are ideal for undertaking a wide range of humanitarian and disaster relief missions.

One such application that has already seen a number of successful trial programs is the delivery of critical supplies for both emergency and ongoing health programs.

Vaccines, food, first aid kits, and blood are highly suited to drone delivery and can be delivered by parachute from a fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicle or using a quick release from the drone in the air.

Mapping, surveying, and image analysis are also highly useful for disaster preparation as well as response. For example, mapping of areas around river basins and large bodies of water could help identify buildings, infrastructure, and farmland that are most vulnerable to flooding, thus informing priorities and response strategies.

United Nations WFP | Using Drones to Deliver Critical Humanitarian Aid

For Instance, Cargo Drones Could Prove Valuable For:

  1. Delivering critical medical aid within the first 72 hours of a crisis, when damaged infrastructure or flooding sometimes makes roads impassable.
  2. Transporting microbiological samples (e.g., in relation to tuberculosis) from field clinics to testing labs, since transporting samples by motorbike can be prohibitively slow.
  3. Rapidly delivering health commodities for which there is unpredictable demand, such as anti-venom.
  4. Supporting vaccination campaigns by delivering vaccines when and where needed, in areas without a reliable cold chain.

Drones won’t replace conventional humanitarian vehicles like 4x4s and planes. But they could bolster responses, adding an extra, complementary tool for humanitarians to use. They can be pre-positioned in disaster-prone regions, they don’t require extensive infrastructure (like runways) to operate, and they can circumvent poor infrastructure, such as in areas that have experienced an earthquake which may have caused surfaces to rupture.

Non-Humanitarian Related Use Cases of Drones:

Zipline

Zipline | The Future of Logistics is Autonomous

Partnered with the Ministry of Health (Ghana), Republic of Rwanda Ministry of Health, Kaduna State Government (Nigeria).

Mark Rober Video on Zipline

Zipline has developed all its proprietary software so you don’t have to.

Amazon's Use Case for Drones:

Amazon | Amazon Drone Delivery Service

"Amazon drone delivery will enable even faster deliveries to customers, with the potential to increase overall safety and efficiency in the transportation network."

There is a List of Components to Focus On:

  1. The Body: A robust drone developed using aerospace standards that design safety into the system, and are as reliable as ground transportation methods that serve customers today.
  2. The Brain: A sense-and-avoid system to ensure the aircraft can detect and stay away from obstacles in the air and on the ground, such as other aircraft and people and pets in backyards. With this system, the drone can encounter new, unexpected situations and still make safe decisions—autonomously and safely.
  3. The Rules: An automated drone-management system to plan flight paths and ensure safe distances between aircraft and other aircraft in the area, while complying with all aviation regulations.

For a decade, Amazon has been innovating in each of these three areas, with a team of safety, aerospace, science, robotics, software, hardware, testing, and manufacturing experts working to ensure the system meets the rigors required for an aerospace product.

Third-Party Account:

CNBC | Amazon's 100 Drone Deliveries Puts Prime Air Behind Alphabet's Wing and Walmart's Partner Zipline

Over 10 years after Amazon originally announced plans to start a drone delivery service, employees state that they are only delivering to two homes in Lockeford located next door to the warehouse due to CAA restrictions.

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