Cordis press The EU-funded Aerial Transport in Remote Areas (ATRA) project applied this approach, creating a drone-based cargo delivery service.“ We developed our own multicopter drone, the FB3, focusing on commercial payloads to provide mountain shelters and restaurants in hard-to-reach places with fresh groceries,” states Moritz Moroder, project coordinator and CEO of Italian SME FlyingBasket.

The brothers Moritz and Matthias Moroder first got the idea of using a drone when hiking in the Dolomites, where they noticed a helicopter delivering food. “In the following years, we have built and tested prototype drones in a mountainous area where weather conditions can be extremely challenging,” he explains. ATRA researchers worked on the design, production, operation and maintenance of the remotely piloted FB3 together with its control station, to offer aerial transport services with payloads of up to 100 kg. In order to improve usability and efficiency, the FB3 is designed to fit into a van, which transports both goods and drone to the closest accessible point for delivery.

The drone falls into the category of vertical take-off and landing unmanned aerial systems (VTOL UASs) and has a maximum take-off weight of 160 kg and a range of 6 km. “Our multicopter uses a purely electric propulsion system and batteries for energy storage. The result is low noise, no exhaust gases, and battery energy transformed to motive power exceeding 80 % efficiency,” Matthias Moroder observes.

Images and quotes courtesy https://cordis.europa.eu/article/id/421502-fresh-groceries-by-drone-to-isolated-eateries