4 times when drones did not work: What India learnt from the Medicine from the Sky project of 2021

Representative image.

Recently, the World Economic Forum (WEF) released a 47-page report on a massive pilot project that was taken up in 2021 to gauge the viability of delivering vaccines and medicines by drones. The report gives an inside view of the Medicine from the Sky project, which was the result of a partnership between the Union government, Telangana government, and WEF.

While the report gave an insight into what went into the pilot and made a case for use of drones for medical deliveries, it also highlights four ‘incidents’ that took place during the event. Now, these ‘incidents’, as termed in the WEF report, are four events where the drone in question did not function as it was supposed to.

Before going into what these incidents are, it is important to put in context that eight consortia of drone start-ups took part in the project, which successfully carried out around 320 sorties over a month delivering vaccines from one place to the other.

However, despite the high rate of success of these drone deliveries, it is important to highlight these ‘incidents’ as they pertain to the delivery of emergency medical provisions, such as vaccines, diagnostic samples, medicines, etc.

What happened in these incidents?

First, WEF in the report said, “a drone carrying a dummy load experienced a rough landing within 15 feet (4.5m) of the ground”.

Second, WEF recorded two instances where drones carrying vaccines experienced communication loss for around 20 minutes. “The connection was soon restored with the drone ultimately landing at the correct destination. In the second case, the drone landed at an emergency site,” the report said.

Third, a drone carrying vaccines could not complete a BVLOS (Beyond the visual line of sight) mission and returned to the point of origin, the report said. BVLOS drone flights are those that go beyond 500-700 metres from the eye’s vision or beyond the visual line of sight.

In the report, WEF clarified, “All recorded incidents were classified as VLOS
incidents with no noticeable threat to the surrounding population or establishments. No damage to the medical products in transit was noted.”

No further information was given in the report regarding which start-up was responsible for these ‘incidents’, whether the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) had taken cognisance of these issues, and or whether there was a plan for the government to address these ‘incidents’ so that it does not happen, for instance, in a real-time scenario where there may be an urgent need for medical supplies.

Manavendra Prasad, Director-Operations at AvTech Forum of India, said, "The Directorate General of Civil Aviation and Quality Council of India should step into this and inquire whether there is any commonality to these incidents and come to a conclusion in this regard. Some of these medical operations can be very critical and even one failure might result in a loss of life.”

Develop playbooks and working notes

While Ministry of Civil Aviation officials did not respond to our queries, WEF told Moneycontrol that users should undertake regular maintenance of their drones, and that there was a need to “measure what needs to be improvised”.

In a written statement, Vignesh Santhanam, India-Lead of Aerospace and Drones at WEF, said, “On these issues and their (possible) recurrence, for any drone mission, there are three key questions that define the grade of an incident. We use the ‘Specific Operations Risk Assessment’ framework to ascertain this."

He continued, “One, did it lead to fatal injuries on the ground? Two, did it lead to fatal impact or injuries to third parties in the air? Three, did it damage any critical infrastructure? While the answers to all of these was no, we believe it was important to capture (in the report) anything that is even close to a ‘near miss’. Hence, regarding recurring issues, every machine needs care and scheduled maintenance - cars, bikes, planes, drones.”

Sanathanam also explained that prior to commencement of the pilot, WEF and other stakeholders had conducted a ‘hazard identification and risk mitigation’ workshop to ensure that drone flights do not take place during any manned aviation activity. “The goal is to make drone activity as safe and poka-yoke as possible, just like how the probability of risk in manned aviation has reduced over the years,” he added.

Many drone-delivery projects being explored

In the recent past, governments and various bodies, propelled by the pandemic, have explored the use of drones for delivering essentials. A few weeks ago, New Delhi-based drone start-up Skye Air Mobility, along with Aster DM Healthcare, announced that it was undertaking a seven-day trial for delivering medicines and diagnostic samples from Aster RV Hospital to Aster Clinics in Bengaluru.

Not just medicines, but the delivery of groceries too is being explored. Earlier this month, Swiggy said that it had selected four drone start-ups for a pilot project that would involve carrying out supply runs for the food delivery platform’s grocery service, Instamart.