Swiss Post ramps up drone tests

Swiss Post has announced that it is taking its drone delivery project in Lugano to the “next test phase”. In March, Swiss Post, the EOC hospital group and drone manufacturer Matternet began to run drone test flights between the “Ospedale Italiano” and the “Ospedale Civico” hospitals in Lugano

Now, for the first time, drones will be used to transport “actual laboratory samples or urgently needed medication”, which will be contained in a safety box which fulfils all transport regulations for biological substances.

Swiss Post said that the flights will be “aligned as closely as possible to the fully-automated process which will be used in the future”.

The company added: “The drone will once again be loaded manually during the new round of test flights. In the future, however, a fully automated logistics station from Matternet will be used. This will enable hospital staff to load the drone without touching it and to dispatch it using the Matternet smartphone app.”

Swiss Post and its partners are aiming to operate a regular drone delivery service for the hospitals from the summer of 2018.