An Irish company, that was due to trial drone food deliveries at UCD, is to begin medication drop-offs in Offaly.
Manna Aero will deliver prescription orders to residences in Moneygall. Elderly and vulnerable people are to benefit from the service.
The team @MannaAero are going to do our best to get some critical human-free delivery services running in selected rural areas in Ireland over the coming weeks.
It will hopefully provide a small but important service to the most vulnerable. #COVID19#drone #delivery pic.twitter.com/FZHDtxPYys
— (@realBobbyHealy) March 27, 2020
Test flights are being carried out today with an official pilot to begin early next week.
The firm had to postpone it's food delivery trial in south Dublin because of the coronavirus outbreak.
Delighted to unveil @MannaAero 'Gen 3.6' ahead of next Month's launch in South Dublin. Our aviation grade drone delivery service will be delivering @CamileThai and @benandjerrys via @JustEatIE to the 30,000+ students with a 3 minute delivery time. #dronedelivery #uav pic.twitter.com/FvuYcko2PB
— (@realBobbyHealy) February 26, 2020
When it gets back underway the unmanned aircrafts are expected to make more than a hundred deliveries a day.
It will make Dublin the first city in Europe to offer fast food deliveries by drone.
Customers will be able to order Camile Thai and Ben and Jerrys through the Just Eat app, with deliveries then taking less than three minutes to be arrive.