(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
By Steinar Sund.
According to the World Bank, Africa needs at least $ 38 billion a year to expand its infrastructure, as well as an additional $ 37 billion for operation and maintenance. This is money that does not exist. Swiss company Afrotech believes the answer to Africa's transport needs may be cargo drones – flying donkeys, as Kenyan farmers have called them. Director Jonathan Ledgard believes that drones can be a reasonable shortcut, so that the African continent can drop traditional infrastructure development and still meet transport needs. This can also create a much faster growth. Next year, Afrotech plans to begin testing cargodrons that can carry small packages over distances over 80 kilometers.
Red and blue transport. Africa is simply growing too fast for it to be possible to develop the road network at the necessary pace. Therefore, part of the transport will have to go through the air, Ledgard believes. This is why Afrotech has invested in flying robots. The company believes the African continent will be the first to develop unmanned aerial cargo on a large scale.
Afrotech aims to set up two types of routes with flying robots in Africa – red and blue line. The red line is the term for a medical and emergency cargo route that can be used to transport packages of necessary equipment to remote locations. The Blue Line is a route for commercial transport, which the company plans to use in and around the cities.
The first transport route with cargodrons will be a red line, and will be established as early as 2016. The route will have a length of about 80 kilometers, and will link cities and villages. Initially, it will be used to transport blood packets from a blood bank to health clinics in the district, so that patients in urgent need of blood transfusion can receive help. In this way, the company will show that unmanned flights of this type can both save lives and create new economic growth. In other words, the red routes will be prioritized, while the blue, commercial routes are a little further ahead.
Wide support. The project with the red transport line was established by Afrotech's director Ledgard, and is supported by EPFL, the federal technology institute in the Swiss city of Lausanne. In addition, the project is supported by Swiss Robotics, leading research universities and several governments. The foremost architect of the project is Lord Norman Foster, who is a prominent British architect.
The basic idea of the project is to unite people with different backgrounds and work together to stimulate development and progress in Africa. In this way, the initiators hope to both save lives and create growth and economic development in remote areas. The project will use the latest in robot and drone research, including precise navigation systems and landing systems, energy systems and route planning.
The first base for the red transport line will be a platform dedicated to testing and implementing new logistics solutions. The project will bring together researchers and practitioners from various disciplines to foster innovation through interdisciplinary sector learning.
Currently, the drones can only carry packages weighing up to eight kilograms, partly due to limited battery capacity. However, this is just the beginning. By 2020, the company expects that robot technology has improved considerably, that drones have become larger and heavier, and that they can carry loads of up to 20 kilos over several hundred kilometers.
Large area. Jonathan Ledgard says that the budget for the first cargo route, which also includes the development of drones and drone ports, is 25 million dollars. The first line is scheduled to be established in East Africa, initially probably in Rwanda.
"This will be the first part of our proposed line between the Nile and the Congo," said Ledgard. "That line will extend along the watershed between the Nile and the Congo, from there west along the Congo and north along the Nile." He says that they expect to achieve a capacity of ten kilos over 160 kilometers by using drones with clean energy by 2019. "Then, depending on regulation and insurance, we will be able to scale the transport up to 100 kilos and more. We believe that anything over seven kilos can be transferred, as long as the flights have a sufficient repetition rate, "he explains.
"Drones have a toxic image."
Stalworth Consulting Group. Afrotech is collaborating with several companies in Africa to implement this project. Many countries are involved. One of the partners is the technology company Stalworth Consulting Group (SCG), which is based in Kampala, Uganda and helps to create innovation for the next generation in Africa. Director of the company Patrick Adengo says that the company has been involved in the initial planning and marketing of the red line project in Uganda, a project that aims to establish a cargo drone route in the outskirts of Mbale in Uganda. It is part of eastern Uganda where the project will help connect several towns and villages in the outlying areas with cargo routes for the transport of medical aid, such as blood for blood transfusions and other emergency products and medicines, by 2019.
The SCG director explains that the company is an independent contractor for Deloitte & Touche, which supports the technology consulting division and their clientele in East Africa. The company's mission and values are to be able to offer significant improvements, and be the preferred technology consulting firm in this part of Africa for the next generation of Africans.
Will save lives. The SCG director from Kampala is in no doubt that this is an important project for his country.
"The Red Line project will help support the transport system in Uganda, and the cargodrons will be competitive and have low transport costs. This is especially important for Uganda, which is an inland state, "says Adengo.
An important aspect of the red line project is that it will help save lives by delivering blood and other emergency products such as medicines in peripheral areas of Uganda, where it is not possible to get there in other ways. Adengo is confident that in the long run this will affect the health of the people in rural Uganda for the better, with emergency aid delivery and improved logistics.
MSF positive. Kyrre Lind from the organization MSF says that they are also interested in drones for transporting medical equipment, and think the project for Afrotech sounds exciting. "We have even used drones on a couple of our projects," he says. It was admittedly on a small scale. In one case, it was a project in New Guinea, where MSF used drones to deliver laboratory samples. The organization is no stranger to using this type of technical aid to reach the outskirts. "We can not ignore anything that can be useful," says Lind.
At the same time, the representative of the well-known humanitarian organization sees many logistical cuts in the sea with this type of aid. He emphasizes that it is necessary to be careful with the use of drones in some countries and areas – in many places, drones are primarily known as a military weapon. "Therefore, it is important to be very aware of the context in which you operate," says Lind.
The use of drones for civilian purposes has great potential, including for the transport of medical equipment, as Afrotech plans. Lind believes it is important to work closely with the local population, so that they get ownership of the project. In this way, one can ensure that the purpose of the drones is perceived correctly. "Drones have a toxic image," Lind points out. "The collaboration must mean that they themselves are involved, and thus understand the usefulness of, and have a say in, the use," he says.
Initially, however, his organization is in favor of using aids of this type, and Lind emphasizes that this is a very promising technology.
Sund is a freelance journalist.
steinar@freelansjournalistssund.no.
