American airspace management company ANRA Technologies has expressed pride for the role it played in the successful medical delivery by drone trials under the Care & Equity, Healthcare Logistics UAS project (CAELUS) project in Scotland in the past four years.
Funded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), Project comprises a consortium of sixteen partners that set up in 2020 to trial what would be the UK’s first national distribution network to use drones to transport essential medicines, blood, organs and other medical supplies throughout Scotland.
The project has designed drone landing stations for NHS sites across Scotland and developed a virtual model (digital twin) of the proposed delivery network which connects hospitals, pathology laboratories, distribution centres and GP surgeries across Scotland.
In the past two years, the second phase of the groundbreaking initiative focused on advancing airspace integration and delivery management services for drones delivering medical products for the National Health System (NHS) Scotland, paving the way for scalable, safe, and efficient drone operations in the United Kingdom.
“ANRA’s contributions centred around supporting the development and validation of airspace management solutions using Unmanned Traffic Management (UTM) and delivery management systems,” the company said in a statement.
The company’s cutting-edge Delivery Management System (DMS), integrated with its UTM platform, enabled complex Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) medical delivery operations, connecting key stakeholders such as NHS Scotland, delivery drone operators, and end users.”
According to the company, fey achievements and contributions from ANRA include its DMS facilitating NHS stakeholders; taking part in major trials across Scotland, as well as developing and testing UTM-ATM interoperability solutions during the Crosshouse and Aberdeen trials.
“The CAELUS project achieved groundbreaking results by reaching several critical milestones. Notably, ANRA’s UTM platform was successfully integrated into the project’s Concept of Operations (ConOps), establishing a solid foundation for future airspace management frameworks.
“Additionally, the project demonstrated the execution of complex BVLOS operations, with ANRA’s DMS, enabling seamless data exchanges with ATM systems. This capability ensured efficient and safe drone flights in highly regulated airspace, as showcased during the Crosshouse and Aberdeen trials.”
One of the project's most notable achievements was completing the UK's longest onshore BVLOS drone flight. The operation featured two segments, with an intermediate landing at a charging station, managed entirely through ANRA’s integrated DMS and UTM solutions.
“We are proud to have contributed to the CAELUS project and its transformative work in advancing drone integration for medical deliveries,” said Dr. Ajay Modha, Head of Business UK at ANRA Technologies.
“The successful trials and demonstrations highlight how our solutions can enable scalable, safe, and efficient drone operations, particularly in critical use cases like healthcare.”
The CAELUS project’s success represents a major step forward in realising the potential of drones to enhance healthcare delivery, reduce transportation times, and improve patient outcomes in the UK and beyond.
The other parties to the consortium included AGS Airports, NHS Scotland, Atkins, Cellnex, Commonplace, Connected Places Catapult, DGP Intelsius, Dronamics, Arup, Planefinder, Skyports, The DroneOffice, NATS, Trax International, and the University of Strathclyde.