Sustainable drone delivery firm Aerit has completed Sweden’s first commercial beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) food delivery, using its autonomous drone the Nimbi.
The delivery flight began at Hygge, a cafe near Tylösand beach, where a cake was winched into the Nimbi waiting at hover. The Nimbi then flew a pre-planned 2.7km route to the delivery location where the package was lowered to the ground.
This was part of a wider pilot project, in collaboration with the region of Halland, designed to explore both the technical and regulatory aspects of drone delivery under new EU wide regulations allowing for commercial drone operations, which came into effect in January of this year.
“Autonomous flying drones provide numerous advantages to traditional last-mile solutions including speed, sustainability, accessibility, and, of course, a certain cool-factor.” said Alexander Perrien, chief executive officer of Aerit.
“We have been working closely with Region Halland and Transportstyrelsen to ensure that today’s delivery marks the beginning of long-lasting relationships to enable the growth of drone delivery across Sweden and the EU.”
Aerit’s Nimbi delivery drones are battery powered with a max payload capacity of 4kg. Nimbi features an autonomous winching system that allows for both package pick-up and drop-off without the need for additional infrastructure.
Aerit received operational authorisation from Transportstyrelsen, Sweden’s national transportation agency, to pilot last-mile drone delivery services in April. It will begin offering continuous delivery services in select locations across Sweden in 2022.
