Blood from the sky“LAND of a thousand hills” is an apt nickname for Rwanda. The tiny, landlocked country ripples with steep, terraced hillsides. Under its single-minded president, Paul Kagame, it is also determined to become a technology hub for Africa. It is not, therefore, surprising that Rwanda will soon be a laboratory for one of the most hyped technologies around.
Zipline, a Silicon Valley startup, will start testing delivery drones (otherwise known as Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) at a site 40 minutes drive south-west of the capital, Kigali, in August. If deemed safe by the government, a month or two later the fixed-wing “Zips” will be dropping off blood for transfusions in small boxes with parachutes at 21 hospitals and health centres within a 75km (40 mile) radius. The aim is to open a second hub in the east to cover the rest of the country within a year, and to start delivering vaccines and other medicines as well as blood.
If all goes well, drones could cut a 3.5-hour trip by car to and from one of the country’s five blood banks to less than 45 minutes, a potentially life-saving difference for a...Continue reading
Source: Middle East and Africa http://ift.tt/297McSD
EmoticonEmoticon