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75 UAVs | Insight to work on collision detection algorithms for image sensors on its UAVs. There is now a move in the delivery sector to using fixed-wing platforms for longer range, but that brings with it the problem of how to land to make a delivery. Start-up Zipline is getting around this by dropping small loads such as vaccines by parachute from its dual- engine fixed-wing aircraft, called Zip. The company has raised $18m over the past five years to deliver health-related packages across Rwanda, teaming up with delivery company UPS. When the service starts in the summer of 2016, a health worker will place an order by text message. Within minutes, a Zip will be prepared and sent to the destination, travelling at up to 100 kph. The medical products will then be dropped off, landing gently at the health facility in an open area the size of a few parking spaces, and the Zip returns to base. This will provide on-demand delivery of blood products to the 20 hospitals and health centres in the country, in what will be the world’s first commercial UAV delivery service. Another start-up, Pouncer, aims to use autonomous fixed-wing craft to fly supplies into disaster areas. They will be built from food materials and launched from a larger aircraft to land in the disaster zone, providing food and equipment quickly and easily (see In conversation, UST 7, April/May 2016). Swarm The idea of a swarm of UAVs is being extended in several ways. For example, US research agency DARPA has commissioned four manufacturers to build its Gremlins system that consists of a number of small, reusable and coordinated UAVs that would be launched from a large manned, or even unmanned, aircraft to perform surveillance over a wide area before returning to the aircraft. They would be deployed with a mixture of mission payloads capable of monitoring and surveillance in a distributed and coordinated manner. The Phase 1 contracts have been awarded to four teams, whose proposals cover a range of technical approaches. “We’ve assembled a motivated group of researchers and developers that we believe could make significant progress towards the Gremlins’ vision of delivering distributed airborne capabilities in a robust, responsive and affordable manner,” says Dan Patt, DARPA programme manager. The teams are exploring different, innovative approaches for technologies in launch and recovery techniques, equipment and aircraft integration, as well as low-cost, limited-life airframe designs that use existing technology and require only modest modifications to current aircraft. The Gremlins would be used up to 20 times each. The move to swarm operation means that more innovation is needed in precision digital flight control, relative navigation and station-keeping. The teams modifying their existing platforms are Composite Engineering in Roseville, California; Dynetics in Huntsville, Alabama; General Atomics Aeronautical Systems in San Diego, California; and Lockheed Martin in Dallas, Texas. DARPA says the expected lifetime of about 20 uses could provide significant cost advantages over expendable systems by reducing payload and Unmanned Systems Technology | June/July 2016 The Zip UAV will be the first commercial delivery UAV in the world, providing blood products to health clinics across Rwanda in the summer of 2016 (Courtesy of Zipline)