India set to test delivery of medicine by drones

The dry runs in Karnataka's Chikkaballapur district will be launched on Monday involving drones capable of ferrying medical supplies across 12 kilometers to people's homes.

Chikkaballapur:For the first time in India drones will be used to deliver medicines to homes in an experiment to be launched on Monday. The dry run will be conducted in Gauribidanur in Karnataka's Chikkaballapur district about 80 kilometers from the state capital Bengaluru.

A consortium led by Throttle Aerospace Systems (TAS) will carry out the first set of trials of what is called Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) medical drone. Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) approved the project in March 2020. Besides TAS, Honeywell Aerospace company will provide the safety expertise.

The trials will involve two types of drones and a delivery software named RANDINT. Nagendran Kandasamy, CEO of TAS said that the consortium will use two variants of its MedCOPTER drones - during the experiment. "The smaller variant of MedCOPTER can carry 1kg for up to 15 km, while the other can carry 2kg for up to 14 km. We will test both types for range and safety for 30 or 45 days involving at least 100 hours of flying time as required by DGCA," he said.