Yesterday as part of the second edition of the business convention Mediterranean Aerospace Matching (MAM24) held in Grottaglie (TA) from 20 to 22 March, promoted by Aerospace Technology District (DTA) from the Puglia Region, ENAC, Puglia Airports and Criptaliae Spaceport, a medical transport demonstration mission with drones took place, which allowed a rapid delivery of emergency goods from the “Marcello Arlotta” airport to the port of the city of Taranto in about thirty minutes.
A 17 kilometer route, the longest that has ever been tested for the transport of a capsule containing medical material. The result was made possible thanks to the joint work between the start up ABzero and the SME Euro USC Italy, with the coordination and collaboration of Taranto Military Navy, within the 2024 edition of Drones Beyond.
The flight mission developed starting from the airport base, where theNavy helicopter delivered the Smart Capsules designed by ABzero containing the medical material. The capsule was subsequently attached to the drone which, after taking off, covered the urban and marine route, pre-authorised by ENAC, in a few minutes. Flying over the Mar Piccolo inlet, he thus reached the port area in total safety.
The mission effectively demonstrated the intermodality of the developed solution and the operability of integrated UAS (Unmanned Aircraft System) systems, such as ABzero's intelligent capsule. The flight was conducted in automatic BVLOS mode (non-visual flight) thanks to the connected mobile application developed by the start up, with remote monitoring of the pilot.
Rapid and clinically safe delivery of biomedical goods has been made possible thanks to ABzero's technology, with the Smart Capsule equipped with special sensors for maintaining blood temperature, pH, humidity and hemolysis. The capsule is capable of transporting urgent goods such as a life-saving drug or bags of blood, but in the future it will also be used to transport organs. Giuseppe Tortora, CEO and founder of ABzero: “The activity carried out during MAM24 is of extreme importance for the entire Advanced Air Mobility sector. The feasibility of hedging has been demonstrated routes over 15 km through the Smart Capsule which, in addition to traditional instrumentation, made it possible to operate the BVLOS flight in completely safe with the supervision of remote pilots, offering a redundant, robust and reliable system. The activity carried out today opens the doors to ttechnologies for medical delivery through life-saving drones with high social impact.”
EuroUSC Italy, leading consultancy company in Italy on regulation and safety in the drone sector, has taken on the task of preparing the necessary documentation to obtain the approval of ENAC for the flight, in accordance with current regulations. In particular, it provided support in drafting the operations manual, conducted an in-depth risk analysis according to the methodology SORA and verified that all documentation complied with regulatory requirements.
Sara Molinari, Safety&Compliance Engineer by EuroUSC Italy, concluded: “Obtaining authorization for a long-distance flight, based on innovative and complex procedures, is a tangible demonstration of the possibility of using drone technology in critical areas such as the transport of medical material. This demo gave us the opportunity to highlight that, through accurate and meticulous risk analysis, it is possible to carry out extremely complicated operations and pave the way for new innovative solutions".
Thanks to this commitment, EuroUSC Italia contributed to ensuring that ABzero was able to conduct flight operations in a safe and compliant manner.
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