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96 before its tiltrotors actuated upwards for a controlled vertical landing on the asphalt. “There are some challenges with executing this kind of mission widely,” Hirt points out. “For one thing, there are regulations that prohibit flying over inhabited areas – with good reason – and since our lab is based in a major city it meant a certain amount of planning for a safe path of approach was needed. “In future, we might set up more field laboratories, or use empty rooms in rural clinics and hospitals for lab experiments, just to get around the hurdle of UAVs being prevented from flying in many densely populated regions.” As the UAV flew, the payload of test samples was insulated against vibration from the motors or turbulence by the design of the 3D-printed payload container and its isolated location in the undercarriage. Given the customisability that 3D printing enables, future versions of the payload will be designed for protecting against heat or cold. “So long as the batch of samples is in that payload bay, no-one is touching it,” Hirt comments. “That’s a far cry from our current methods, in which essentially we use private organisations to ferry boxes of test tubes for us. “If they choose not to wear a mask or gloves, or throw the test tubes roughly onto the back seat, or samples are left in the heat of the car owing to slow traffic, detours or personal stopovers, it is simply out of our control. The private organisations are independent, and Becker & Kollegen is prohibited by labour law to control or monitor individual drivers beyond providing scheduling suggestions for pick-up and drop-off. That is why the UAV alleviates so much uncertainty for us.” The overall speed of delivery – the short flight time plus less than 5 minutes of mission planning, assuming permission October/November 2020 | Unmanned Systems Technology The flight path between the Theresienwiese and the laboratory was plotted in Quantum-Systems’ QBase 3D GCS software Recovering the test tube samples after delivery in Becker & Kollegen’s parking lot, an operation Quantum-Systems hopes to accomplish using automated machinery at its droneports in the future