[botjunkie.com] It’s always nice to see innovative uses of military hardware designed to -gasp- help people for a change. The South African National Health Laboratory Service has been testing prototype UAVs designed to transport (or even airdrop) testing materials and medical supplies to communities that are otherwise impossible or nearly impossible to get to.

An approach was made by the NHLS to what was then Denel Aerospace Systems (now Denel Dynamics), with a view to the production of a prototype UAV, which NHLS specified should have autonomous takeoff (from an NHLS lab site) and GPS-directed navigation capability, with a payload capacity of 500g and the ability to deliver up to 12 standard-sized sputum jars containing specimen and sterilising fluid over a range of 40km, and to perform a precision autonomous landing at NHLS-defined GPS co-ordinates at the remote site (the rural clinic), where it should also be capable of return launch to base. This aircraft could be used for specimen transport, and is probably ideal for the delivery of urgently required, lifesaving therapeutic agents such as rabies-immune globulin, NHLS antivenoms, two units of whole blood, or critically needed medications…

It’s a pretty slick system, and is designed to work without much in the way of human supervision, even in lousy weather.

Source: http://www.botjunkie.com/2008/09/15/robo-pigeon-uavs-transport-medical-supplies/