French postal operator La Poste has announced that it successfully piloted ‘drone deliveries’ ofparcels in cooperation with the drone manufacturer Atechsys in September this year, following tests
by other firms such as Amazon and DHL.The pilot project ‘GeoDrone’ was conducted via La Poste’s express parcels subsidiary GeoPost atthe Centre of Studies and Tests for Autonomous Models (CEEMA) in the Var départment insouth-eastern France.
The successful test has proved the usability of the drone in real-life conditions, La Postestressed. During the test, the drone successfully completed a fully automated transport process fora parcel weighing 2 kg and a distance covering 1,200 m. The sequence included takeoff, flightphase, landing and return to the starting point.
This trial showed that GeoPost and Atechsys have chosen the right approach of using drones toaccess remote areas such as mountains, islands, rural areas etc, La Poste said. “This newtechnology will also allow responses to various emergency situations.”
The drone developed through the collaboration of the two companies is capable of independentlytransporting large parcels with the dimensions ‘40cm x 30cm x 20cm’ within a radius of 20km, nomatter the ground type.
La Poste highlighted its interest in new technologies by getting involved in the development ofalternative and innovative projects. “Through collaboration with innovative SMEs, GeoPostcontributes to their development and the improvement of the related process,” the postal operatorconcluded.
Specialised in autonomous systems since 2009, Atechsys was born from the idea that each userequires a particular drone, tailored to the needs of the respective client. In five years, theinnovative firm established itself as a benchmark for the design of drones. Atechsys, with ninestaff and revenues of €650,000 in 2013, has become one of the leaders on the market of publiclyused professional drones. The CEEMA is the first centre for drone tests in Europe. Founded in 2008,this aviation platform features dedicated air space for drones weighing up to 150 kg.
La Poste’s drone delivery pilot follows earlier tests conducted by other companies. For example,DHL Parcel Germany successfully tested urgent deliveries by a ‘parcelcopter’ drone to the North Seaisland of Juist earlier this year and is now operating a regular commercial service to the island.The small unmanned aircraft transports medications and other urgently needed goods at fixeddelivery times to the car-free holiday island off the Lower Saxony coast. This represented the nextphase of the parcelcopter research project launched in December 2013, in cooperation with DHL’s tworesearch and development partners, the Institute of Flight System Dynamics at RWTH AachenUniversity and Microdrones GmbH.
E-commerce giant Amazon has also been testing small drones this year for ‘Prime Air’ deliveriesof small parcels up to 2.3kg with a 10-mile radius of the company’s distribution centres within 30minutes. It has officially asked the US Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) for permission to test theunmanned aircraft, which could reach speeds of 80 km/h, in outdoor areas close to its head officein Seattle. However, its request has not been approved yet.
With the mounting pressure to adjust the strict regulations that ban commercial use of drones,the FAA has given exemptions to four US companies including Trimble Navigation Ltd, VDOS GlobalLLC, Clayco Inc and Woolpert Inc to use drones commercially earlier this month. While the FAA triedto balance the safety of US airspace with the largely untapped potential of unmanned aerialvehicles (UAV), it was ordered by US government to submit a new law for commercial use by September2015. However, the FAA claimed it needed more time to work on it, until at least 2017.
In response to the FAA exemptions for the four companies mentioned above, Amazon outlined itsfrustration in a letter to the agency with regard to the refusal to grant an exemption for itsPrime Air service. Because of the restrictions, it started trialling outdoor drone deliveries inother countries.
