For first time ever, drones to supply blood to hospitals in Switzerland

In what will be a first of its kind endeavour, an autonomous drone delivery network is all geared up to deliver blood across Switzerland starting next month.

The network will see robot couriers, who can fly, shuttling blood and pathology samples between hospital labs and clinics.

Matternet, the company behind the drones says that the robot couriers will launch from stations that automatically replace the batteries and cargo, which is put into parcels by humans before flight and can be retrieved using a smart phone.

According to the company, medical samples can be delivered to urban hospitals within 30 minutes.

Each station will have software to help manage drone traffic in case the airways get busy.

According to Matternet, they plan to +tackle UK and German markets next if its Swiss service goes well.

Speaking to The Verge, Andreas Raptopoulos, co-founder and CEO of Matternet said that the diagnostics that they will be delivering need to be transported are urgent in nature .

The first of the Swiss drone networks will be operational next month, with several more planned for 2018.

The flying robots have a top speed of 70 kilometres per hour and can reach 20 kilometres on a single charge.