A lifesaving partnership
We’re delighted to announce that we became the formal technology partner of WeRobotics and Flying Labs. There are many good reasons to be partnering with them. WeRobotics is an organisation that acknowledges that the technology is ready, but access to tech and opportunities are unevenly distributed. This is why they have co-created and facilitated a network of local knowledge hubs in Africa, Asia and Latin America to build on existing expertise in drones, data and AI - the Flying Labs network. The goal of Flying Labs is to accelerate the positive impact of humanitarian, health, development and environmental solutions locally.
Flying Labs expand local markets by creating new jobs and businesses that offer robotics as a service and support local ecosystems. They are set-up in 25+ countries across Africa, Asia, and Latin America that are increasingly engaged in the use of cargo drones. Cargo drone projects are the result of rising demand for these solutions across the public health sector and beyond. The cargo drones solution developed by Avy will enable Flying Labs to expand the range of services they can offer in the future. Moreover, our platform provides the kind of safety, range, and payload capacity that will appeal to a more significant number of partners across the Flying Labs network.
The perfect fit for Avy
The fact that WeRobotics shares our commitment to localisation, building capacity and technology handover is central to our partnership. Since Avy became BVLOS compliant to the EU drone regulations and certified from the Dutch CAA in 2019, it’s time to get operations started. We achieved compliance by proving that operations have mitigated the risks through redundancy and fail-safe measures integrated into the aircraft design, ensuring reliability and safety when performing BVLOS flights in European airspace. The Avy Aera can cover a range of more than 100km, with a flight time of over 60 minutes, and carrying a payload of 2kg.
Flying Labs are not new to cargo drones. They have been engaged in cargo drone projects since 2016. Peru Flying Labs, for example, has delivered medicines and blood samples in the Amazon Rainforest with BD; Nepal Flying Labs collected TB samples from remote clinics in Pyuthan with BNMT; Papua New Guinea Flying Labs ran cargo drone demos with the Center for Disease Control (CDC), and Cameroon Flying Labs will soon be collecting patient samples for Polio testing with the CDC and World Health Organization. Also, they have worked on cargo drone projects with partners in Brazil to reduce Zika and in Fiji to reduce Dengue. Last but not least, they offer a professional online course on the use of cargo drones for medical delivery. Participants who complete the course receive a certificate signed by MIT, the University of Pennsylvania, and WeRobotics.
Power of Local
Avy is proud to be part of such a partnership and together we hope to encourage the power of local. You may be wondering what that means:
The Power of Local is recognising that power is not evenly distributed between the Global North and the Global South. When local experts have access to appropriate technology solutions, they can use them to tackle local problems more sustainably, effectively and ethically. Local experts with local knowledge and first-hand experience with the challenges facing their communities understand better than anyone how to bring the right solutions to those challenges.
Stay tuned, we couldn’t be more excited to start operations and share updates on our use cases with WeRobotics!
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