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Urban Air Mobility with Matternet Medical Drones

On the topic of Urban Air Mobility (UAM), the first project that comes to mind is Zurich Switzerland’s UAV that carries clinical laboratory specimens across different terrains. Matternet, the North Carolina based company, also in partnership with UPS, introduced the first FAA sanctioned UAV system for routine revenue flights (Matternet, 2019).
Human Factors
Fully autonomous through Matternet’s Cloud platform.  The UAV will be loaded with secure container of the specimen such as blood sample.  It was take-off, fly a predetermined route, land vertically and unload the package at its destination.  This is a fully autonomous system that with follow a predetermined path for every flight.  Human interaction is limited to package, loading, unloading while operators oversee flight operations from a ground control station.
Matternet Cloud is the proprietary software platform that receives customer requests, generates routes, monitors flight, commands and controls all operating assets (Matternet, 2019)
Aerospace Integration and Infrastructure
In March 2017, Matternet became the first company in the world to receive full operations of UAV logistics networks over densely populated areas in Switzerland. In March 2019 UPS partnered with Matternet to transport samples through hospital systems in Raleigh NC became the first sanctioned use of a UAV for routine delivery flights under a contractual delivery agreement.
The 3-year FAA UAS Integration Pilot Program (IPP) test practical applications of UAS with government and private companies see how this technology can be safely and usefully integrated.  This IPP is a collaborative effort with the FAA, NCDOT, UPS, Matternet, and WakeMed Hospitals.
Technical Aspects
These transport UAVs operate Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) between hospitals in the Insel University Hospital system.  The route covering 5.8 km is completed in 7 minutes.  Matternet’s M2 Quadcopter is powered by a rechargeable lithium-ion battery and can carry payloads weighing up to 5 pounds over 12.5 miles.  While the customer must load the container in the receptacle, the Matternet Station is a 24/7 autonomous system that loads the container and exchanges batteries at its docking station (Matternet, 2019).
These UAV’s haven’t been completely flawless.  A UAV crashed into Lake Zurich January 28th of this year.  This was the first incident and prior to that these medical UAVs had over 3000 successful flights.
Timeline for Implementation
With thousands of flights without incident, this delivery system has proven its worth.  Boeing has invested $16 million into development of Matternet technology.  They also have support from the Swiss Post, Sony Innovation Fund, and Levitate Capital.  Matternet intends to utilize the funding and expand globally for UAM.  In May of 2018, Matternet was selected to carry out the first drone logistics operations for U.S. hospitals under the FAA’s drone integration program (Wertheimer, 2019)
Is it a Reasonable Solution?
Matternet’s innovations are a vision to provide hospitals with the ability to transport time sensitive laboratory samples and materials by air.  This greatly enhances efficiency saving doctors and patients crucial time, compared to couriers on the road that needed to drive around Lake Zurich.  This system flies right over it, between the laboratory and hospital.  (GGBA, 2019).  Also, as of March of this year, the FAA has approved and has oversight with UPS-Matternet operations at WakeMed’s Flagship Hospital and campus in Raleigh NC.
References
Matternet. (2019). Retrieved from http://mttr.net/Links to an external site.
Medical delivery drones take off in Switzerland | GGBa. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.ggba-switzerland.ch/en/medical-delivery-drones-take-off-in-switzerland/Links to an external site.

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