Will Autonomous Drones Solve Africa’s Healthcare Delivery Challenges?

Africa accounts for 50% of global deaths from communicable diseases. Poor road networks and weak supply chains prevent critically ill patients from receiving life-saving medical treatment when needed. These logistical issues also reduce the effectiveness of vaccination campaigns.

In 2014, Keller Rinaudo, Ryan Oksenhorn, and William Hetzler pivoted from their robot toy startup to launch Zipline, an autonomous drone delivery service. Inspired by Tanzanian public health researcher Zachary Mtema’s health surveillance project, the team narrowed its focus on preventing deaths from medical supply shortages.

With ROS co-creator Keenan Wyrobeck as technical director, Zipline developed a drone that could carry out autonomous medical deliveries at scale. The first large-scale deployment was in 2016 in Rwanda, a small, densely populated, mountainous East African country with an enabling policy environment.

Initially, the drones (Zips) delivered blood packs (white blood cells, platelets, plasma, and cryoprecipitate) to remote Rwandan healthcare centers. Later, the company expanded its services to include vaccines, medications, test kits, and animal health products.

Today, Zipline is the largest autonomous delivery system and arguably the largest autonomous company by coverage area alone. The company operates in eight countries across four continents, with over 1.4 million deliveries completed and over 100 million autonomous commercial miles flown.

The company has two delivery platforms: Platform 1, a second-generation, fixed-wing aircraft optimized for long-range deliveries, and Platform 2, a VTOL drone optimized for precise home deliveries with a small “Droid” tethered to the main Zip. The droid can self-navigate horizontally to avoid obstacles and carry up to eight pounds.

Both delivery platforms are designed for safety and reliability. Zipline CTO Keenan Wyrobek says the company employs a safety-first approach to development, testing, and deployment. The drones run internal system diagnostics before every flight and stay in the air without propellers touching the ground. They are modular, waterproof, and have a fail-safe, “parachute landing system” for emergency landings.

Zipline is Rwanda’s national drone service provider with two distribution centers servicing most of the country. Operations teams are staffed and led by residents motivated to serve their communities. These community members have a deeper understanding of the local health systems and are more effective at providing customer support.

Zipline says its autonomous drones have contributed to lowered maternity mortality rates and increased vaccination coverage in deployed countries. Researchers at Wharton found a 51% reduction in postpartum hemorrhage-related deaths in Rwandan hospitals close to the distribution centers.

However, Zipline is not a charitable organization. The company sells its services to governments, healthcare foundations, and retailers. It has also enjoyed unique advantages from operating in African countries. The clearer airspace, logistics challenges, and often relaxed airspace regulations provide a favorable testing environment for the company’s autonomous drones and delivery service.

Drone delivery is the fastest and most reliable way to get medical supplies to patients in remote areas on demand. Attempts to scale last-mile medical deliveries with motorcycles and other transport solutions have mostly failed. However, drone delivery is fairly expensive, estimated at $13.50 per package. Time savings and waste reduction benefits are hard to quantify, casting some doubt on drone delivery’s cost-effectiveness.

Zipline’s business model has proven sustainable so far, and the company expects to hit one million daily deliveries in five years, even with advancing competition. The company also plans to ramp up support for travelling practitioners and preventative healthcare systems.

The company still has its critics, and some say it hasn’t helped level the playing field for local drone operators in Africa. It receives high-level exemptions that aren’t granted to other operators. These exemptions, although justified by Zipline’s advanced tech stack, limit the competition in these countries.

In a BBC interview, Frederick Mbuya, CEO of Uhurulabs, said Zipline has been able to develop its technology rapidly because of the enabling environment in Africa. Therefore, the company needs to do more to develop local capacity in these countries.

While Zipline’s impact in Ghana, Rwanda, and other African countries cannot be denied, there is still a critical need for autonomous delivery solutions that can be built, maintained, and repaired in Africa.