Local deliveries, by definition, make it possible to source items for short and medium-term needs close to home. What is generally taken for granted in urban areas, often entails long distances in rural locations – thereby proving a problem especially for older people. The drone delivery service “Marktschwalbe” in the Brandenburg locality of Wusterhausen/Dosse is designed to remedy this.
At first sight, the community looks small and manageable. On closer inspection, however, Wusterhausen/Dosse covers three postcode areas and almost 200 square kilometres with just under 6,000 inhabitants spread across 22 districts. If you forget an item while shopping or suddenly have a hankering for fresh bread, you either have to do without or go on a trek to get it. But for 340 residents in the Barsikow, Trieplatz and Blankenberg districts a new option has been available now since early June: the “Marktschwalbe” delivery service.
Specific demand
This option is not about delivering an entire weekly shop for a family of four. “It’s for when I need something specific or have forgotten something,” explains Dr. Robin Kellermann describing the situations covered by the delivery service. Initially, operations are in an “experimental phase”, as Kellermann puts it. Because in the BVLOS operating scenario – approved by Germany’s Federal Aviation Authority in this Specific Category for the sparsely populated target area meeting the specs of the comparatively low-risk SAIL II (Specific Assurance and Integrity Level) – deliveries are initially being tested on Tuesdays and Fridays – the two weekly market days in Wusterhausen/Dosse. Together with Tobias Biehle this mobility researcher from project and consulting agency “Luftlabor” has developed the idea for this delivery service, which forms the centrepiece of the model project “Stadt-Land-Drohne”. This 2-year model project funded by the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture is expected to gauge how well cargo drones are suited to improving local supply in rural areas.
Via the “Marktschwalbe” shop registered users from the three remote districts of Barsikow, Trieplatz and Blankenberg can place orders with so far six local firms within the scheme and pay online. The goods are then picked by an employee and taken to “Droneport Wusterhausen” located at about 700 m from the marketplace. There a hexacopter made by Portuguese manufacturer Beyond Vision waits to take the merchandise to destinations up to 12 km away. Flight operations are coordinated and monitored in the company HQ of technology partner Dronegy located in the North Rhine-Westphalian city of Siegen. Once the ordered goods have arrived at the nearest Droneport, shoppers can remove them from the transport box themselves. Though not before the drone has landed safely and rotors have been switched off. Before that, access to the fenced landing field is denied.
> This feature was produced in cooperation with Drones, the magazine for Drone Economy. www.drones-magazin.de