On 9 May, the University of Southampton’s Windracers Ultra made the first ever drone cargo flight across the Solent, carrying insulated cases for pathology samples to St Mary’s Hospital on the Isle of Wight.
In July, drone delivery service provider Skyports announced a trial with Vodafone and Deloitte, delivering medicine, PPE, Covid-19 testing kits and more between hospitals and medical practices in Argyll and Bute on the west coast of Scotland.
Pick-ups that once took 48 hours were now made in 30 minutes, Skyports claimed. Speed was especially important in remote areas, as communities grappled with the fast-moving pandemic.
The projects were well-suited to the murky and dangerous waters of the outbreak, bringing promising new technology to a shocking new situation. But even after the pandemic, we are more likely to see drone deliveries take off.
Removing risk
Governments around the world are desperate to prevent future outbreaks, and minimising human contact has been at the core of public health response – something drones excel at.
Instead of the delivery driver model we have now, remote-controlled or automated drones could pick up packages from warehouses – themselves largely automated – and bring them straight to consumers.
“You have automatically removed human contact, with the exception of the packaging,” says Peter Richards from digital manufacturing specialist Protolabs to Professional Engineering. “You have removed an element of risk.”
After years of publicity and limited trials, for example, Amazon is reportedly preparing to ramp up drone deliveries in the UK. The Telegraph analysed LinkedIn data that suggested it had almost doubled its Prime Air team in Cambridge, including several new ‘flight operators’.
With prominent logistics firms such as DHL and UPS already in the sector, an increase in flights seems inevitable as companies seek to make deliveries safer.
A Protolabs survey from earlier this year revealed an increasing appetite for drone deliveries amongst 325 aerospace business leaders as the pandemic took hold. Initially, 42% of companies expected commercial drone deliveries would be ‘commonplace’ by 2023 – a few weeks later, that had increased by 11% as the effects of the virus became clear.
Regulations remain a significant barrier to widespread roll-out, but the pandemic will likely make governments willing to explore new options. The Department for Transport funded the Isle of Wight project, and is working with the Connected Places Catapult to develop an Unmanned Traffic Management system.
Safety is another issue, which could be mitigated by limiting weight or having defined flight corridors avoiding roads and pedestrians. Security and the threat of accidents was the main reason for a surprisingly low level of public support for drone deliveries in an IMechE poll last year – only 23% of people supported them – but 75% supported emergency service response, and opinions may have changed in the wake of lockdown disruption.
No ‘one-size-fits-all’
For engineers there are also technical challenges, and opportunities to explore different technologies for different applications. Quadcopter-style vehicles might be best suited for urban flights, for example, while fixed- or tilt-wing aircraft are better suited for faster, longer distance trips.
Companies’ choices will relate to the services they provide, says Richards, such as business-to-consumer. “Point-to-point delivery would then potentially require a different type of design of drone as well. I think it comes back to the application being looked at, as opposed to a ‘one-size-fits-all’.”
Thankfully, new technology is making it easier for businesses to explore different approaches. 3D printing, for example, enables rapid prototyping of drone parts to find the right combination of weight and strength. Engineers can even try out advanced new materials, such as printed carbon fibre-reinforced nylon from MakerBot.
“With materials and production techniques changing, it’s very easy for organisations to test and learn,” says Richards. “With the growth of more direct use of 3D printing of components or parts, you’ve got that ability to test things quite quickly… it’s quite easy now to prototype in a cost-effective way, to test and trial it.”
Energy efficiency and battery storage is another major challenge that could soon be overcome. Conventional drones generally fly for about half an hour before charging, which either requires a long time on the charger or a ‘person in the loop’ to change batteries.
In April, a study by researchers at Martin Luther University in Halle-Wittenberg, Germany, found drones are likely to consume up to 10 times more energy than electric delivery vans in densely populated cities, as they generally just carry one parcel. Wind can also make flights much less efficient, even if a drone is simply hovering to deliver a package. They could offer a promising alternative in rural areas, however.
While it might not make drone deliveries more sustainable, new charging technology from StoreDot could make them much more commercially appealing by slashing the required charging time for half-hour flights. The Israeli firm recently demonstrated technology that charged a drone battery from 15% to full in just five minutes, compared to more than an hour for some other commercial unmanned aircraft.
The system uses an autonomous charging station developed with Airscort, and the battery uses nanoparticle metalloids with very high diffusion and low resistance to replace graphite, which has high resistance and potential safety issues. Self-healing protective polymers enhance mechanical strength to help maintain operation, while the metalloids extend battery life.
When viewed alongside the long-term effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and increasing government support, rapid improvements in technology are making drone delivery fleets much more likely in the near future.
“All the technology has come together and aligned to almost present that fantastic opportunity,” says Richards, “a convergence of technology.”
Want the best engineering stories delivered straight to your inbox? The Professional Engineering newsletter gives you vital updates on the most cutting-edge engineering and exciting new job opportunities. To sign up, click here.
Content published by Professional Engineering does not necessarily represent the views of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.