Massachusetts Explores the Future of Healthcare Logistics with Drone Delivery Trials

MassDOT tests could pave way for drone medical delivery in state

By DRONELIFE Features Editor Jim Magill

The Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) recently completed a series of tests to demonstrate the ability of drones to safely deliver medical supplies in areas across the Commonwealth.

The tests, which took place between August and October of last year, were conducted to determine the feasibility of using drones to conduct short-distance flights to carry medical supplies and equipment, especially for home-based healthcare and emergency medical response.

“These demonstrations are part of the process by which MassDOT can collect and evaluate more information that may inform how best to proceed,” Denise Garcia, deputy administrator of MassDOT’s Aeronautics Division, said in an emailed statement.  “That information may also help hospitals and health care organizations choose whether they wish to use drone medical delivery services in the future.”

Two drone delivery companies, DroneUp and Draganfly, and a third company, Arrive AI, participated in the testing program. Arrive AI, which produce a “smart” mailbox enabling autonomous drone-based delivery to and from the mailbox, teamed up with A2Z Drone Delivery for the project.

The three participating companies each took part in a daytime demonstration, designed to show the ability of UAVs to carry a payload of up to 10 pounds for a distance of one mile and return to base. Two of the demonstration flights took place at the MassDOT UAV/AAM test site in Lynn and one in a residential setting in Swampscott, Massachusetts.

One of the flight demonstrations employed drones which followed programmed flight paths with pilots monitoring operations, while the others flights involved the use of manual flight controls.

None of the flights were conducted beyond the visual line of site (BVLOS). The two flight demonstrations conducted at the UAV/AAM test site did not require BVLOS flight and the Swampscott demonstration employed visual observers to maintain a continuous line of sight with the aircraft. The Swampscott demonstration flew over a suburban area in a flight pattern that involved flying over roads, but not over cars or people.

MassDOT officials said demonstrations allowed the department to explore the use of drones to meet critical needs, such as the timely, cost-effective delivery of supplies and devices for health care and emergency management, across the Commonwealth.

The testing program demonstrated technical hardware capabilities of the drone industry — the UAVs, delivery/winch systems to offload the drones’ payloads and boxes to securely store packages — needed to perform the deliveries. The department also learned valuable insights regarding how companies will interface with other airspace users, employing UAS/drone Traffic Management (UTM) tools to interface with end-users in the medical field, the officials said.

In addition, the demonstrations showed the ability of drone delivery systems to meet the Commonwealth’s critical challenges of providing timely, cost-effective delivery of supplies and devices for health care and emergency management. MassDOT is expected to use the lessons learned from the demonstration program to form a plan for the expected increase in the number of medical drone delivery programs proposed in the state within the next several years.

In order to facilitate medical delivery via drone programs in the future, non-government organizations, including hospitals and package delivery services, must first consult with the FAA to determine the necessary permits and/or waivers required to be able to fly drones within permissible airspace in the state, the MassDOT officials said.

DroneUp and Draganfly both have secured FAA waivers allowing them to conduct BVLOS flights and flight over people in other parts of the country.

The drone medical delivery demonstrations underscore the commitment of MassDOT Aeronautics to making air transportation safer, cleaner, more efficient and more economically advantageous. The agency, which oversees 35 of the state’s 38 public-use airports, maintains its own robust drone usage program. It deploys UAVs for infrastructure inspection and incident response in support of MassDOT, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) and the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency (MEMA).

“This medical delivery demonstration underscores the value of drones for many operational needs,” Transportation Secretary and CEO Monica Tibbits-Nutt said in a press statement. “Drones have already proven useful in operations, including MBTA track corridor inspections, MassDOT Highway bridge inspections, overhead project evaluations and other needs. We continue to assess the use of drones for other purposes in the future.”

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Read more:

• MassDOT Aeronautics Hosts Drone Safety Day Event to Showcase Innovation and Promote Safe Flying
• MassDOT Aeronautics Completes Successful Drone Medical Delivery Demonstrations
• MassDOT Aeronautics Secures $1 Million Grant for Drone-Based Infrastructure Upgrades

Jim Magill is a Houston-based writer with almost a quarter-century of experience covering technical and economic developments in the oil and gas industry. After retiring in December 2019 as a senior editor with S&P Global Platts, Jim began writing about emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence, robots and drones, and the ways in which they’re contributing to our society. In addition to DroneLife, Jim is a contributor to Forbes.com and his work has appeared in the Houston Chronicle, U.S. News & World Report, and Unmanned Systems, a publication of the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International.