Swiss Post to Start Regular Lab Shipments Between Two Hospitals

The Swiss Post, which is the national postal service of Switzerland, has announced that it will soon begin performing regular drone flights of lab samples between two hospitals in the town of Lugano. Currently, a driver has to deliver the samples across town, often taking a long time to do so due to traffic. The drone being currently trialed by the Swiss Post is the Matternet M2, which can travel at 22 Mph (26 Kph) autonomously in a straight line between the hospitals. It takes off and lands all on its own, thanks to an infrared tracker positioned on the ground, and only requires a freshly charged battery and the return destination to fly back to where it came from. Importantly, it can carry up to 4.4 pounds (2 Kg) of cargo for 12 miles (20 Km) on a single battery. It can avoid buildings and hillsides and flies on an approved route to avoid any contact with anything standing or flying. It has redundant sensors and systems, and even a parachute if something goes wrong in midair.

The Swiss Post has already performed about 70 flights and has the Swiss government’s civil aviation authority giving it the green light to move forward with the service. The Swiss Post expects to spend the rest of the year testing the delivery service in various flight conditions to evaluate the capabilities and needs of the drones and hospitals.