Octacopter drone delivers Covid-19 vaccines in Karnataka

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<strong>An advanced drone developed by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and its constituent National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL) today successfully delivered 50 vials of Covid-19 vaccines on the outskirts of Bengaluru.<br />
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The octacopter delivered the vaccines along with syringes in a special container from the Chandapura public health care centre to Haragadde in 10 minutes after covering an aerial distance of about 7 kms.  <br />
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Flying at an altitude of 300m AGL at a speed of 10m/sec, the octacopter returned to Chandapura in approximately the same time duration. It usually takes between 30 to 40 minutes to deliver vaccines to Haragadde from Chandapura by road.<br />
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The CSIR-NAL had recently teamed up with the Karnataka government for aerial delivery of Covid-19 vaccines in remote areas using a multicopter drone.<br />
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The indigenous, medium class BVLOS multicopter UAV made of lightweight carbon fibre foldable structure has been developed by NAL and can carry a payload of 15 kg with hovering endurance of 40 minutes.</p>
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It sports unique features like autonomous guidance through dual redundant MEMS based digital autopilot with advanced flight instrumentation systems. The Civil Aviation ministry had granted conditional permission to CSIR-NAL for conducting Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) flight trials on September 13.</p>
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NAL's octacopter can fly at an operational altitude of 500m AGL and at maximum flying speed of 36 kmph. Its regulatory compliance includes DGCA-NPNT, geo-fencing and digital sky with 360-degree collision avoidance making it one of the best UAV in its class.<br />
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Octacopter developed by NAL can be used for a variety of BVLOS applications for last-mile delivery like medicines, vaccines, food, postal packets, etc. It is integrated with a powerful embedded computer and latest generation sensors for versatile applications like agricultural pesticide spraying, crop monitoring, mining survey, magnetic geo survey mapping, etc.</p>
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