New mobility with autonomous drones

This use case is part of the Innovate2030 Challenge

Status Quo

Traffic jams, congestion, pollution, delays, carbon dioxide emissions, high costs, bad integration at handover between different modes of transport, bottlenecks in urban areas, and many other pain points are currently complicating the transportation of medium to light weight goods that need to be transported quickly and reliably from point A to point B.

To counter this problem, various areas, and entire supply chains (i.e., underlying processes, transport routes, transport types etc.) must be analyzed to identify more innovative and sustainable solutions.

One promising and sustainable alternative lies in the use of unmanned aerial vehicles like drones to revolutionize mobility solutions.

Key question

BELL’s Autonomous Pod Transport (APT) can be put to meaningful uses that improve or alleviate the current pain points of existing conventional mobility in logistics and supply chains.

The fully electrical cargo drone with a reach of approx. +50km is faster, cleaner, greener, cheaper and more reliable than many of the existing alternatives.

Therefore, three key questions for this use case are the following:

• What is the best way, drones like BELL’s APT 70 or APT 20 can be put to a meaningful use that delivers social value and sustainability in selected fields of economy and society?
• What specific processes must be changed for supply chains and how can the use of technology of autonomous drones be set up in this selected fields?
• How can the use of technology of autonomous drones be set up as part of a broader supply chain and the underlying digital infrastructure?

The potential use cases for autonomous drones are very diverse and are still in the early stages of its development – you are free to decide whether your solution is a general high-level concept, or a more practical solution tailored for one specific case.

Sub-areas

To help you navigate the broad and vast playing field of drones we have furthermore identified five specific sub-areas that Bell believes hold the greatest potential for business and society.

Health Care: Transportation of donor organs, emergency blood-packs, vaccines, tissues and other clinical samples on short and medium distances

The transport of donor organs to the place of a transplantation must be fast. As soon as a donor organ is removed from the donor's body, it is cut off from the blood circulation and oxygen supply. Transporting life-saving donor organs to their destination by drone could save time in life-critical situations. Once the technical infrastructure has been set up, unmanned organ transport by air may in the long-term cost less than transport by the usual means of transport: by charter plane or helicopter, in a car or by train. It may also be integrated with those solutions.

Act quickly in Disaster Relief: Transportation of food, essential supplies, medicines, equipment, etc.

When natural disasters hit parts of a country, help is needed quickly and without long preparation times. Drones are a lot more agile than helicopters and more flexible than road transport, to supply equipment to areas of need. They can also land on small surfaces and thus provide a more “on point” delivery”, which is important for the delivery of medical goods (e.g., vaccines).

Improve Agriculture: Documentation of forest fire risk, deforestation, illegal logging, etc.

A view from the sky is very important for farmers to assess their livestock and crops, especially when combined with digital and automated sensors and imaging tools. Moreover, they can be used by state authorities to assess fire risks, deforestation, or criminal activities like illegal logging.

Keep businesses on schedule in Logistics: Transportation, deliveries, and movement of information

Within production plants, industrial estates or airports, items often need to be moved quickly. A transport by APT drone saves time makes processes more efficient either within a company or when fast delivery of products to customers in urban areas is required.

Integrated Solution: Integrate into national infrastructure with other modes of transport

APT’s could be used by state authorities like police, army, and fire departments to complement their existing infrastructure like cars, trucks and helicopters. When authorities coordinate with other stakeholders, an integrated network of APT drones could be developed that benefits not only one but many different users and satisfies multiple use cases. Drones could be used by different stakeholders according to their need and priorities.