Skip to main content

This awesome drone station could be coming to a hospital near you

Matternet has been developing its unique drone delivery system for almost a decade, focusing heavily on how it can use the technology to transport medicines and medical samples between health facilities.

The California-based company has been investing much effort and money in creating a highly autonomous system, leading to this week’s unveiling of the cool-looking Matternet Station.

Recommended Videos

Seemingly grabbed from the props department of a sci-fi movie that never got made, the elaborately designed dock acts as a departure and arrival point for deliveries using Matternet’s custom-built M2 quadcopter. The station stands at a height of about three meters and can be installed on the ground as well as on a roof.

Matternet

The video (below) shows the system in action. After taking a blood sample from a patient, the health worker enters the relevant delivery information into Matternet’s cloud-based platform. She then takes the sample to the drone station and places it inside a small chamber that she unlocks with her ID. The sample is then automatically attached to the drone.

Seconds later, the top of the station opens up like a blooming flower to reveal the drone and its consignment. The rotors start spinning and off it flies to its destination, in this case, a lab seven miles away. The receiving station guides the drone in before closing its “petals” to secure the flying machine and its special delivery. The recipient then receives a notification to let them know it has arrived.

The New Matternet Station

What we can’t see is the drone having its battery automatically swapped so that it can embark on its next trip on full power.

Matternet’s system is efficient, fast, and looks darn cool, too. The autonomous flying machine at its core can fly pretty much anything as long as it fits in the box and doesn’t exceed its maximum payload weight of 4.4 pounds (2 kg).

The company has already been testing its platform at health facilities in Raleigh, North Carolina, and San Diego, California, in partnership with UPS. Swiss Post has also used it in trials, though a couple of incidents in 2019 forced Matternet to suspend operations while it investigated what went wrong. Flights with Swiss Post have since resumed.

“Our vision is to connect every healthcare facility in every metropolitan area with the fastest transportation method available today,” Andreas Raptopoulos, CEO of Matternet, said in a release. “We are building the technology platform for extremely fast, point-to-point, urban medical delivery, enabling hospital systems to shrink patient waiting times and save millions of dollars per year through the centralization of laboratories and medical inventory.”

Raptopoulos added: “The Matternet Station is a very important part of the ecosystem for making this vision a reality.”

Matternet’s system can be used by health care facilities for an annual subscription, and the station will be installed at its first hospital in the coming months.

Trevor Mogg
Contributing Editor
Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…
U.K. has plans to create aerial drone zone superhighways to contain UAV traffic
Drone Zone

 

The technology needed to drive delivery drones is already in existence, but laws have yet to catch up. To help take drone technology to the next step of mainstream adoption, the U.K. is currently in the process of establishing what could be the world’s first commercial drone corridor. This airspace will be available to any fully automated drones flying beyond visual line-of-sight (BVLOS), so long as it doesn’t require specialist hardware and conforms to basic technical regulations.

Read more
ChatGPT’s awesome Deep Research gets a light version and goes free for all
Deep Research option for ChatGPT.

There’s a lot of AI hype floating around, and it seems every brand wants to cram it into their products. But there are a few remarkably useful tools, as well, though they are pretty expensive. ChatGPT’s Deep Research is one such feature, and it seems OpenAI is finally feeling a bit generous about it. 

The company has created a lightweight version of Deep Research that is powered by its new o4-mini language model. OpenAI says this variant is “more cost-efficient while preserving high quality.” More importantly, it is available to use for free without any subscription caveat. 

Read more
Star Wars legend Ian McDiarmid gets questions about the Emperor’s sex life
Ian McDiarmid as the Emperor in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.

This weekend, the Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith 20th anniversary re-release had a much stronger performance than expected with $25 million and a second-place finish behind Sinners. Revenge of the Sith was the culmination of plans by Chancellor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid) that led to the fall of the Jedi and his own ascension to emperor. Because McDiarmid's Emperor died in his first appearance -- 1983's Return of the Jedi -- Revenge of the Sith was supposed to be his live-action swan song. However, Palpatine's return in Star Wars: Episode IX -- The Rise of Skywalker left McDiarmid being asked questions about his character's comeback, particularly about his sex life and how he could have a granddaughter.

While speaking with Variety, McDiarmid noted that fans have asked him "slightly embarrassing questions" about Palpatine including "'Does this evil monster ever have sex?'"

Read more