Matternet is testing drone delivery systems with the Swiss postal service as part of the company’s initiative to develop smart transportation systems. We’ve written before about Matternet’s vision of a network of drones that can be used for good but the project is now out of the idea stage and moving into testing.
Matternet ONE is the first drone designed for transporting goods. On one battery charge the drones can deliver one kilogram of payload over twenty kilometers. When routes are standardized, like postal customers, the drone can fly autonomously.
Images courtesy of Matternet
The guidance system is intended to fly at an altitude between 50 and 100 meters. Programming takes into account factors of weather, obstructions, and restricted airspace. Customers can set up several landing stations in the app and fly between them.
Matternet previously made news in their partnership with Doctors Without Borders, transporting medicine in Papua New Guinea. The longest trip during that test run was 43 kilometers in 55 minutes with one stop for battery charging. Automotive travel would have required more than four hours and 63 kilometers.
Small scale drone delivery still makes the most sense to me when delivering medicine to regions with poor road infrastructure or regions unreachable due to weather. This new joint venture between Swiss Post, Swiss WorldCargo and Matternet feels like a combination of testing to gather useful data and public relations.
Matternet’s app looks ready to go and there’s a great promotional video on their website showing how a delivery might look. The user experience can be limited to placing an item in a box, loading the box onto the drone, and a few keypad touches on an app.
Along with Amazon’s highly promoted but still secret drone delivery project this is another indicator that drones are ready to develop into an efficient and common transportation system in the next few years. DHL has been testing delivery over the last few years of their ‘parcelcopter’ with a pilot program in Juist on the North Sea.
Images courtesy of Matternet