Norwegian drone company Aviant has launched a new home delivery service, named Kyte, which it has claimed can deliver groceries, takeaway food and non-prescription medicines to sparsely populated and remote areas in Norway.
This follows Aviant’s receipt of €1m (£861,000) of public funding from Innovation Norway, a government-owned company that provides funding to entrepreneurs and tech businesses, to autonomously deliver prescription medicines from pharmacies to people in remote and suburban areas with poor infrastructure or challenging weather conditions.
Delivery orders can be made through the Kyte app. From here, orders are loaded at the Kyte base before being autonomously delivered. The company reports an average delivery time of 24 minutes.
What’s more, Aviant has said its drones are capable of flying as far as 120km (74.5 miles) in a straight line, meaning Kyte’s delivery range is within a 30km (18.6 miles) radius for return flights, compared to the 2-3km (1.2-1.8 miles) offered by other providers.
Aviant is certified under EU regulations to operate autonomous flights within the union.
“Our technology proved critical for rural healthcare services during the pandemic, where winter road closures meant our drones were the only link between Covid-19 test sites and laboratories in Central Norway,” said Lars Erik Fagernæs, founder and CEO at Aviant.
“…Door-to-door drone delivery has been a hot topic for years already, but most commercial attempts have been limited to small, open areas such as a single park or technology that limits the radius to 2-3 kilometres… [with Kyte] we have a large delivery radius, the permits to operate, and no requirements for pilots or spotters along the route.
“We are actually delivering food, groceries, and medicine by drone to people’s doorsteps in Norway right now.”
The company was founded by Lars Erik Fagernæs, Herman Øie Kolden and Bernhard Paus Græsdal at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 2020. Since then, the company claims to have operated more than 2,500 autonomous flights.
