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Are DRONES the future of delivery? U.S. firm
plans vast network to deliver everything fromdrugs to post
Matternet already trialling its drone in Haiti to deliver drugs to remote areas
Drones could use huge networks with base station to recharge themselves
Networks set to be used in rural areas with poor road networks
By Mark Prigg
PUBLISHED: 14:26 GMT, 31 May 2013 | UPDATED: 14:28 GMT, 1 June 2013
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Drones could soon be delivering everything from post to drugs using a vast international network, a U.S. firm
has claimed.
Matternet, a Silicon Valley startup, has already trialled the drone network in Haiti and the Dominican Republic,
where they were able to fly for six miles carrying a 2kg payload.
The firm now hopes to expand with an ambitious plan to replace existing delivery systems and set up a global
network of 'drone routes' for the gadgets, which can automatically fly themselves.
Scroll down for video
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You've got drone-mail: The U.S. startup hopes to initially use the network to deliver drugs
and other supplies to third world countries
HOW IT WORKS
The matternet drones are entirely automated, and will be backed up by a network of 'hubs' on the ground
rather like post offices.
These hubs would let the drones pick up and drop of packages, and also recharge their batteries before
continuing to the next station.
Control of the drones and the assignment of packages for delivery would eventually be handled by anautomated operating system, Matternet says, and orders or requests could be placed and paid for by mobile
phone.
The firm hopes to set up recharging base stations for the drones so they can stop and recharge themselves
along the way.
Currently the firm has drones that can travel six miles and carry 2kg, but has plans for larger drones with a
longer range.
The firm hopes the system will be used initially in rural areas or countries where there is no established road
network.
'The easiest way to describe what we are doing is to compare how mobile telephony has taken off in the
developing world,' Matternet founder and CEO, Andreas Raptopoulos told CNN.
'(We want) to leapfrog the traditional modes of transportation infrastructure in a similar way and bring items
through these unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to people who may otherwise be cut off or isolated,'
So far, Matternet have reached the stage of running trials of 'quadrocopter' drones, which took place in Haiti
and the Dominican Republic last year.
The firm has ambitious plans.
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'We are creating the next paradigm for transportation using a network of unmanned aerial vehicles,' it says.the
next paradigm for transportation using a network of unmanned aerial vehicles
Urban drones: the delivery systems could eventually be used in cities around the world
to automatically deliver packages
The potential applications, the firm says,include delivery of medicines to disconnected areas, enabling farmers
to supply products directly to customers and providing vital materials to areas cut off by natural disasters.
If the initial trials are a success, a version for cities could also be built, allowing existing couriers to be replaced
by unmanned drones flying through the sky.
The firm also believes the system could be relatively cheap, and according to CNN, a Matternet case study of
the Maseru district of Lesotho, put the price of a network of 50 base-stations and 150 drones at just $900,000.
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An artist's impression of how Matternet's drone network could expand across Africa to
offer deliveries to remote areas using base stations
The prototype design for a Matternet drone, showing a large cargo carrying area in red,
and six rotor blades to keep it in the air
Unmanned aerial vehicles will revolutionalise transportation
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Interesting for emergency drops and access to remote areas, but surely swarms of drones in the sky will be a hazard?
- patricu , Dublin, 02/6/2013 08:12
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I'm sure even with drones my orders will arrive during the day usually to the wrong address and in a damaged box.
- mista chris , midlands, 02/6/2013 08:00
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