Development of Medical Drone for Blood Product Delivery: A Technical Assessment

Authors

  • Syahril Amir Mohd Department of Electrical, Electronic & Systems Engineering Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia.
  • Kok Beng Gan Department of Electrical, Electronic & Systems Engineering Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8776-5502
  • Ahmad Kamal Ariffin Mohd. Ihsan Departmentof Mechanical & Manufacturing Engineering Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia.

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.3991/ijoe.v17i09.24399

Keywords:

Medical Drone, Blood Products, Blood Transportation, Hexacopter, Payload

Abstract


Drone is the well-known technology in military and amateur application. Recently, the drone was used to deliver goods and parcels. There is an increasing need for urgent delivery of medical supplies in low resource setting due to traffic congestion and terrain obstacles. The delivery of blood in emergency cases such as postpartum hemorrhaging is challenging and can be delayed due to geographical condition in underserved area. Postpartum hemorrhaging needs an immediate blood transfusion with proper blood product to save the life of mother and baby. To address to this need, a drone that can deliver blood supply to the desired location may be a good option. Therefore, research has been conducted to identify the baseline of drone specifications for blood delivery. A Hexacopter with the ArduPilot firmware and a Lithium-Polymer battery of 16,000 mAh were used to study the applicability of blood products delivery using drone. Using several tests to assess drone limitations, experimental data was obtained and analyzed using distinctive methods. The results indicated that the thrust-to-weight ratio of the drone play a paramount role for the drone performance and flight time. The GPS guidance performance showed a reliable and stable flight with only a slight deviation of ±6 meters during the tests. Finally, a test flight was conducted to simulate the actual test location from Queen Elizabeth Hospital and Hospital Wanita dan Kanak-Kanak, Likas, Sabah. The developed drone reached a flight time of 25 minutes covering 8.38 km with 4.3 kg take-off weight.

Author Biographies

Syahril Amir Mohd, Department of Electrical, Electronic & Systems Engineering Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia.


Syahril Amir Mohd is currently a MSc student in Department of Electrical, Elec-tronic & System Engineering, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. He is currently work-ing on a project related to blood delivery using drone. His research interest is drone technology and embedded system development.

Kok Beng Gan, Department of Electrical, Electronic & Systems Engineering Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia.


Kok Beng Gan has received the B.S. degree in Material Physics from University Technology Malaysia in 2001. He was conferred a PhD (Electrical, Electronic & System Engineering) from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia in 2009. He was an engineer in the field of electronic manufacturing services and original design manufacturing from 2001 to 2005. After several years of industry experience, he decided to venture into academic in 2005. He is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical, Electronic & Systems Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. He specializes in embedded system in healthcare. His current research interest are biomedical optics & optical instrumentation, embedded system & signal processing for medical application and biomechanics & human motion analysis.

Ahmad Kamal Ariffin Mohd. Ihsan, Departmentof Mechanical & Manufacturing Engineering Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia.

Ahmad Kamal Ariffin is a Professor at the Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, UKM. He has been with UKM for more than 25 years involved in research, teaching & learning, supervision, publication, consultation and administration. He is the recipient of prestige European Union Horizon 2020 Grant together with 5 other top universities in Europe for the large structural reliability and uncertainty research.He is a qualified professional engineer under the Board of Engineers Malaysia and Institute of Engineers Malaysia. He is also a Fellow for Institute of Materials Malaysia. Prof. Ahmad Kamal Ariffin is the founder of Malaysia Association for Computational Mechanics, which is affiliated under the International Association for Computational Mechanics.He received an Apple Distinguished Educator (ADE class 2017) as a recognition for being part of the global community of educators using apple technology in and out of the classroom.

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Published

2021-09-27

How to Cite

Mohd, S. A., Gan, K. B., & Mohd. Ihsan, A. K. A. (2021). Development of Medical Drone for Blood Product Delivery: A Technical Assessment. International Journal of Online and Biomedical Engineering (iJOE), 17(09), pp. 183–196. https://doi.org/10.3991/ijoe.v17i09.24399

Issue

Vol. 17 No. 09 (2021)

Section

Papers

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