ASX-listed Elsight is partnering with the world’s biggest drone delivery company DroneUp in a crucial commercial trial in the Dallas-Fort Worth region of the United States which could pave the way for a massive expansion in commercial drone delivers as official restrictions are relaxed.

The United States Federal Aviation Administration is monitoring the trial using retail giant Walmart’s delivery system and featuring three competing Drone Parcel Delivery providers working simultaneously in the same crowded airspace to test how drone delivery can work at scale.

Elsight supplies the Halo communications system to DroneUp which enabling its drones by fly missions Beyond the Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) and a single operator to control a fleet of drones from a remote location. 

“At the conclusion of the FAA monitored trial, and based on the lessons learned, it is expected that the FAA will give greater freedom to operate to this industry with a positive impact to both Walmart and DroneUp, paving the way for a more efficient and profitable delivery operation,’’ Elsight Chief Executive Officer Yoav Amitai said.

An easing of restrictions by US aviation regulators could pave the way for similar measures in other jurisdictions including Australia.

Walmart and DroneUp have consolidated their national drone delivery offering and are concentrating on the Dallas-Fort Worth region as they attempt to scale up the delivery option and reduce costs from about US$30 to deliver a package to less than US$7. 

DroneUp is concentrating on building a “scalable model’’ of drone delivery and cutting costs per delivery as it seeks to take drone deliveries into a new era.

DroneUp is competing with Alpahbet’s Wing and Zipline in the Dallas-Fort Worth trial. 

DroneUp recently announced it had achieved 500 deliveries a day and had achieved up to 40 deliveries an hour with an improved pilot to drone ratio.

Under the DroneUp system, users can manage missions from anywhere globally and operators can safety and efficiently oversee up to 20 concurrent missions through a unified interface. 

Mr Amitai said drone delivery was on the verge of gaining acceptance worldwide.  

But he said “complete connection confidence’’ such as that offered by the Halo system was essential to the industry’s growth. 

DroneUp Chief Technology Officer John Vernon said: “Elsight provided the reliability that we needed, provided the connection consistency, provided the bandwidth. Elsight had the cloud, provisioning, management, and software capabilities that allowed us to continue refining and improving something Elsight still does very well.’’

The crucial trial comes as new research shows drone delivery is winning the hearts and minds of US consumers. 

A recent survey by DroneUp , shows drone deliveries are not only meeting but exceeding customer expectations while also driving new revenue for retailers. 

The DroneUp survey found satisfaction with safety, speed of delivery, messaging updates and delivery location was over 90% positive.  Customers also expressed confidence in the service with 94% saying they were satisfied with the delivery speed and 96% believing the service was safe. 

Drone delivery in Australia moved to a new level in July when a partnership between DoorDash, Eastland shopping centre and Wing, the drone service operated by Alphabet, Google’s parent company, began food delivery services to homes within a seven-kilometre radius of the shopping centre. 

The service will cover up to 250,000 potential customers in 26 suburbs including Ringwood, Bayswater, and Blackburn.

The service in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs comes as DoorDash has been operating food delivery services in Logan, south of Brisbane in 2022. 

A report for Airservices Australia, by Scyne Advisory, on the Australian drone industry, predicted goods deliveries would reach 46 million flights or about 70% of drone flights by 2043. Increasing payload capacity would unlock key use cases like last-mile parcel delivery. 

Mr Amitai said adopting Halo’s robust multi-link connectivity would enable the dramatic scaling up of drone flights necessary to support the expected increase in the number of drone deliveries over the next two decades. 

“Complete connection confidence is a necessary component in flying beyond the visual line of sight for the navigation and safety of unmanned vehicles. In fact, the Halo system had already proven its reliability in extensive use cases around the world in what is known as beyond the of visual line of sight or BVLOS flights in over 250,000 flight hours,’’ Mr Amitai said.     

“Our Halo system guarantees communications connectivity for drone BVLOS flights,’’ Mr Amitai said. “We don’t want to think about the consequences if just one of those flights lost communication for any reason,’’ he said.  

DoorDash and Wing have been conducting drone deliveries in Logan since November 2022 for and last year expanded the service to Ipswich within a 7km radius of the Springfield Central Shopping Centre.  

Wing’s launch in South-East Queensland followed Swoop Aero’s 2021 launch of regional drone deliveries of pharmaceuticals in the Goondiwindi region on the Queensland-New South Wales border.  

Wing Aviation Pty Ltd and Swoop Aero Pty Ltd are to date the only two companies to receive CASA approval to operate drone delivery services in Australia.

Source: Press Release