Drones are commonly used for surveillance or photography. But if it is said that the lifesaving medicines will be delivered by drones, it is normal to get surprised! The Govt of Telangana is thinking of such an initiative, which is called 'Medicine From The Sky.’ With the help of this initiative of the Telangana government, drones will be able to reach different parts of the state with medicines, vaccines, blood, various samples for lab tests, and various medical supplies. The project was launched on September 11, 2021, from the Vikarabad district of Telangana. The Telangana government has already obtained clearance from the Ministry of Civil Aviation.

What is Medicine from the Sky (MFTS)?

This project is initiated by the state IT department’s Emerging Technologies Wing which has a partnership with the World Economic Forum, NITI Aayog, and HealthNet Global. The goal of MFTS is to experiment with Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) drone flights for vaccine delivery using the Vikarabad district air space.

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In 2020, the Telangana government has signed a partnership with the World Economic Forum to start the MFTS project. Later they released an expression of interest (EOI) to identify the drones’ capability to provide accurate, safe and dependable pickup as well as delivery of the health care products. However, about 16 consortia or logistic farms and drone operators showed interest in the project and the government shortlisted 8 of them.

India never initiated this kind of project before and it is believed to be the first organized BVLOS drone trial in the country. Moreover, it is also the first initiative in the healthcare domain.

Before the launching event three consortia Hepicopter Consortium (Marut Drones), Bluedart Med Express Consortium (Skye Air), and CurisFly Consortium (TechEagle Innovations) reached Vikarabad for test flights. After the launch, all the eight consortia will continue testing for long-distance travel and heavier payloads to see the reliability.

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What are the opportunities?

Although drones are widely used for photography, video shot, mapping, and other operations. But, the current COVID-19 pandemic has increased the scope of using drones beyond the limit. As per the published plan, the selected consortia will demonstrate BVLOS flights’ utilization in the Vikarabad district. They will use the Government Area Hospital to take off and different primary health centers (PHC) and sub-centers will be landing sites.

So, the startups and private sector firms can collaborate with the state government and integrate with the government healthcare system to improve the traditional delivery system for the life-saving elements. Thinking of the ongoing pandemic, the medicine from the sky project can give access to healthcare centers in rural and remote locations.

Hepicopter consortium, one of the selected consortiums, has mentioned that India can use up to five UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicle) or drones per district with a range of 40km. Within this distance, the payload can be up to 15 kg with an endurance of two hours. As per the assumption, the government can cover 718 districts in India using 3600 drones and distribute 15,000 kg vaccines in a single day.

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How does Medicine from the Sky work?

An in-house app will be used by the team at the pickup point which will receive a message about the needed inventory from the drop-off location.

For example, the PHCs can place a request via the app to get the vaccine or medical supply from the district hospitals. When the team at the district hospital gets the message, load the items as per the request. After that drones will take off after a scheduled pre-flight test and check the condition of the wind, GPS tracker, and audio pilot system. Next, the location details are sent to the system and when the drone is near the drop-off location and about to land, PHC gets a notification. After that, the personnel at the PHC can go to the drop-off location and collect the items by keying in an OTP. Afterward, the personnel may put the required items for the return flight or the empty drone flies back notifying the app.

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Marut Drones has built a Hepicopter 1.0, which is capable of carrying a 10 kg payload. It can fly a maximum of 15 km distance with an endurance of 30 minutes through 400 feet flying altitude. Additionally, Hepicopter 1.0 can hold four boxes and each box can carry up to 10 units of blood or more than 500 doses of vaccines. Hence, a single flight can carry around 2000-3000 doses of vaccines.

They also made another multi-rotor wing battery-powered drone, Hepicopter 2.0. This gasoline-powered drone can carry up to 5kg with a max endurance of 80 mins. It can fly up to 80km range at 400ft to 12,000ft altitude. This one can carry 1,000 doses of vaccines in two boxes. 

Based on the design the drones can be autonomous or manually operated. The drones are unique in the way that they can carry multiple temperature-controlled boxes which also maintain different temperature levels. On average, the drones can cover 25km of distance in 30 minutes.

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Hi Rapid Lab, Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI), and Alpha Design Technologies are among other partners of the consortium.

Challenges

There is no doubt that drone delivery will be a game-changer for any logistic organization. But, still there are some challenges the organizations have been facing and may face in the future. The biggest challenge for the existing companies is to get permission and understand the regulations. Hence, a favorable government policy is highly necessary, so that more startups can come forward to develop the healthcare delivery system.

But the use of drones in Telangana's ‘Medicines From The Sky’ will surely open up opportunities for other industries as well. So, the government may loosen the policies to increase the drone delivery system in the healthcare domain and other sectors.

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