Medical drone transportation flights

Medical drone transportation flights between hospitals above the City of Antwerp and Hasselt.

The MEDRONA project did focus on achieving a structural, green and sustainable modal shift for inter-hospital medical deliveries from road to unmanned aviation, with key improvement to healthcare quality: more predictable and timely medical delivery will save lives.

The consortium performed inter hospital transport demonstrations in Droneport (test location) and over the city of Antwerp in a one-off mission for the EU commission. Procedures have been developed based on an adapted safety case to request (towards Belgian Civial Aviation Authority) and obtain approval for urban test flights in 10 hospital-to-hospital flight corridors. 

The project was driven by a multi sector consortium of industrial level actors with multi-disciplinary competencies who follows a joint roadmap to make the modal shift work: Unique world leading airspace management system for unmanned aviation (Unifly), effective ability to bring the hospitals on board by understanding sector concerns (Helicus), industrial grade aviation equipment development capability (SABCA), state of the art modular & scalable software (NSX) and air traffic procedural & safety expertise (Skeyes). 

Funding: Smart Mobility Belgium
Project duration: 2018 – 2019

Press:
EMERCE