Update: DHL to deliver medicine via UAV [link]
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The World Health Organization (WHO) is experimenting with Matternet’s new quadcopters (one of which is pictured below) to transport medical supplies to remote regions in Bhutan. The country lies in the Himalayas, which makes access to public health particularly challenging for rural communities. Reaching these remote mountain populations in a timely and affordable way is key. This explains why WHO is looking into UAVs.
Matternet is “aiming to build a network of low-cost quadcopters to connect the country’s main hospitals with rural communities.” The team “uses small quad- copters that can carry loads of about four pounds across 20 km at a time, to and from pre-designated landing stations. The company is able to track these flights in real-time, and aims to eventually deploy fully-automated landing stations that replace drone batteries, giving them extended range and flight time. The drones it uses typically cost between $2,000-5,000.”
WHO is not the only international humanitarian organization exploring the use of UAVs for the transportation of small payloads. Colleagues at UNICEF and Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) are actively exploring this use-case as well with the latter in early pilot stages with Matternet in Papua New Guinea.
UAVs can also be used in other ways to support public health projects. Take my UAV colleagues in the Philippines who are collaborating with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) on a food security problem with obvious linkages to public health. Typhoon Haiyan uprooted millions of coconut trees when it barreled through the country. Many of these trees have since been rotting, which is now leading to a Rhinocerous Beetle infestation that can wipe out the entire coconut industry—a very important source of livelihood for many in the country. Meanwhile, other colleagues in Pakistan are looking into using UAVs “to identify and exterminate dengue larvae” as part of an existing intervention that uses smart phones to promote mosquito mitigation efforts.
See Also:
- Humanitarian UAV Network: Strategy for 2014-2015 [link]
- Humanitarians in the Sky: Using UAVs for Disaster Response [link]
- Crisis Map of UAV Videos for Disaster Response [link]
- Humanitarian UAV Missions During Balkan Floods [link]
- “TripAdvisor” for International UAV/Drone Travel [link]
- UAVs, Community Mapping & Disaster Risk Reduction in Haiti [link]
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