Interest in applying unmanned vehicles to combat the coronavirus pandemic continues to grow, but challenges to proper and effective implementation remain.
Victoria Kickham started her career as a newspaper reporter in the Boston area before moving into B2B journalism. She has covered manufacturing, distribution and supply chain issues for a variety of publications in the industrial and electronics sectors, and now writes about everything from forklift batteries to omnichannel business trends for DC Velocity.
Drones are playing a growing role in the fight against Covid-19, according to recent data from London-based data analytics and consulting firm GlobalData. The firm cites increased use of the “disruptive” technology as organizations and governments look for ways to contain the spread of the virus.
Manish Dixit, principal disruptive tech analyst at GlobalData, cites growing interest in drones to “ensure social distancing, conduct temperature checks, monitor public gathering, spray disinfectants, deliver medicines, along with surveillance and monitoring, among others.” The trends are based on information gathered from the firm’s Global Disruptor Intelligence Center, which includes proprietary databases, primary and secondary research, and in-house analysis, according to the company.
Although interest is growing, questions linger about the most effective and proper use of drone technology. While unmanned vehicles hold the potential to remove humans from the risk of infection, there are challenges to implementing them effectively, including back-end technology issues and broader privacy concerns.
This spring, Connecticut-based drone developer Aquiline Drones (AD) announced the launch of a drone-dedicated cloud to help address the IT issues, allowing companies to better manage and power drones. Company Founder and CEO Barry Alexander said the firm’s AD Cloud allows companies in any industry and geography to build their own unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) solution, tailored to their needs, that can be integrated into the AD Cloud. Specifically, Alexander said AD Cloud can program UAVs and unmanned ground-based vehicles (UGVs) with cloud-based command and control (C2) to conduct “mission-critical exercises,” including:
Delivery of medical supplies to front-line healthcare workers;
Transport of test results to labs;
Delivery of medicine and urgent supplies to individuals quarantined at home;
Disinfectant spraying into public pandemic areas;
Serving as mobile public speakers to inform people of safety measures and tips;
Patrolling high-risk areas with photoelectric sensors to enforce curfews;
Monitoring health of employees with heat signature, infrared cameras;
24-hour surveillance of critical infrastructure, such as power and nuclear facilities and water and sewage treatment plants, as well as essential retail operations, like grocery stores, pharmacies, and gas stations.
AD Cloud was deployed this month and a public launch is slated for June.
Privacy issues remain a concern as well, especially as governments around the world begin using drones for surveillance and monitoring. Dixit says drone manufacturers are working with regulatory bodies in the United States to ensure they comply with established guidelines and norms, but the topic is still evolving. He said governments around the world are “formulating laws” to address data privacy usage restrictions for both private and governmental drone owners, for example.
Alexander agrees that the topic is evolving and adds that it is “highly contentious” as well. He says AD’s Covid-19-related efforts remain focused on health and safety applications, including sterilization of public spaces and delivery of pharmaceuticals, human tissue, and organs—programs that are “squarely focused on mitigating and minimizing risk of human exposure” to the virus.
“AD refrains from making public statements or undertaking any projects or actions that violate—or could potentially violate—civil liberties and rights,” Alexander said. “There are many applications for drones and drone technology that are less intrusive but definitely beneficial in achieving the end goal when mitigating Covid-19.”
Such efforts are already underway. In February, Chinese e-commerce company JD Logistics announced plans to use drones for medical supply delivery in China. The move comes alongside wider industry efforts to increase use of autonomous mobile robots as a way to improve operations and reduce human exposure to the virus.
Supply chain planning (SCP) leaders working on transformation efforts are focused on two major high-impact technology trends, including composite AI and supply chain data governance, according to a study from Gartner, Inc.
"SCP leaders are in the process of developing transformation roadmaps that will prioritize delivering on advanced decision intelligence and automated decision making," Eva Dawkins, Director Analyst in Gartner’s Supply Chain practice, said in a release. "Composite AI, which is the combined application of different AI techniques to improve learning efficiency, will drive the optimization and automation of many planning activities at scale, while supply chain data governance is the foundational key for digital transformation.”
Their pursuit of those roadmaps is often complicated by frequent disruptions and the rapid pace of technological innovation. But Gartner says those leaders can accelerate the realized value of technology investments by facilitating a shift from IT-led to business-led digital leadership, with SCP leaders taking ownership of multidisciplinary teams to advance business operations, channels and products.
“A sound data governance strategy supports advanced technologies, such as composite AI, while also facilitating collaboration throughout the supply chain technology ecosystem,” said Dawkins. “Without attention to data governance, SCP leaders will likely struggle to achieve their expected ROI on key technology investments.”
The British logistics robot vendor Dexory this week said it has raised $80 million in venture funding to support an expansion of its artificial intelligence (AI) powered features, grow its global team, and accelerate the deployment of its autonomous robots.
A “significant focus” continues to be on expanding across the U.S. market, where Dexory is live with customers in seven states and last month opened a U.S. headquarters in Nashville. The Series B will also enhance development and production facilities at its UK headquarters, the firm said.
The “series B” funding round was led by DTCP, with participation from Latitude Ventures, Wave-X and Bootstrap Europe, along with existing investors Atomico, Lakestar, Capnamic, and several angels from the logistics industry. With the close of the round, Dexory has now raised $120 million over the past three years.
Dexory says its product, DexoryView, provides real-time visibility across warehouses of any size through its autonomous mobile robots and AI. The rolling bots use sensor and image data and continuous data collection to perform rapid warehouse scans and create digital twins of warehouse spaces, allowing for optimized performance and future scenario simulations.
Originally announced in September, the move will allow Deutsche Bahn to “fully focus on restructuring the rail infrastructure in Germany and providing climate-friendly passenger and freight transport operations in Germany and Europe,” Werner Gatzer, Chairman of the DB Supervisory Board, said in a release.
For its purchase price, DSV gains an organization with around 72,700 employees at over 1,850 locations. The new owner says it plans to investment around one billion euros in coming years to promote additional growth in German operations. Together, DSV and Schenker will have a combined workforce of approximately 147,000 employees in more than 90 countries, earning pro forma revenue of approximately $43.3 billion (based on 2023 numbers), DSV said.
After removing that unit, Deutsche Bahn retains its core business called the “Systemverbund Bahn,” which includes passenger transport activities in Germany, rail freight activities, operational service units, and railroad infrastructure companies. The DB Group, headquartered in Berlin, employs around 340,000 people.
“We have set clear goals to structurally modernize Deutsche Bahn in the areas of infrastructure, operations and profitability and focus on the core business. The proceeds from the sale will significantly reduce DB’s debt and thus make an important contribution to the financial stability of the DB Group. At the same time, DB Schenker will gain a strong strategic owner in DSV,” Deutsche Bahn CEO Richard Lutz said in a release.
Transportation industry veteran Anne Reinke will become president & CEO of trade group the Intermodal Association of North America (IANA) at the end of the year, stepping into the position from her previous post leading third party logistics (3PL) trade group the Transportation Intermediaries Association (TIA), both organizations said today.
Meanwhile, TIA today announced that insider Christopher Burroughs would fill Reinke’s shoes as president & CEO. Burroughs has been with TIA for 13 years, most recently as its vice president of Government Affairs for the past six years, during which time he oversaw all legislative and regulatory efforts before Congress and the federal agencies.
Before her four years leading TIA, Reinke spent two years as Deputy Assistant Secretary with the U.S. Department of Transportation and 16 years with CSX Corporation.
Serious inland flooding and widespread power outages are likely to sweep across Florida and other Southeast states in coming days with the arrival of Hurricane Helene, which is now predicted to make landfall Thursday evening along Florida’s northwest coast as a major hurricane, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
While the most catastrophic landfall impact is expected in the sparsely-population Big Bend area of Florida, it’s not only sea-front cities that are at risk. Since Helene is an “unusually large storm,” its flooding, rainfall, and high winds won’t be limited only to the Gulf Coast, but are expected to travel hundreds of miles inland, the weather service said. Heavy rainfall is expected to begin in the region even before the storm comes ashore, and the wet conditions will continue to move northward into the southern Appalachians region through Friday, dumping storm total rainfall amounts of up to 18 inches. Specifically, the major flood risk includes the urban areas around Tallahassee, metro Atlanta, and western North Carolina.
In addition to its human toll, the storm could exert serious business impacts, according to the supply chain mapping and monitoring firm Resilinc. Those will be largely triggered by significant flooding, which could halt oil operations, force mandatory evacuations, restrict ports, and disrupt air traffic.
While the storm’s track is currently forecast to miss the critical ports of Miami and New Orleans, it could still hurt operations throughout the Southeast agricultural belt, which produces products like soybeans, cotton, peanuts, corn, and tobacco, according to Everstream Analytics.
That widespread footprint could also hinder supply chain and logistics flows along stretches of interstate highways I-10 and I-75 and on regional rail lines operated by Norfolk Southern and CSX. And Hurricane Helene could also likely impact business operations by unleashing power outages, deep flooding, and wind damage in northern Florida portions of Georgia, Everstream Analytics said.
Before the storm had even touched Florida soil, recovery efforts were already being launched by humanitarian aid group the American Logistics Aid Network (ALAN). In a statement on Wednesday, the group said it is urging residents in the storm's path across the Southeast to heed evacuation notices and safety advisories, and reminding members of the logistics community that their post-storm help could be needed soon. The group will continue to update its Disaster Micro-Site with Hurricane Helene resources and with requests for donated logistics assistance, most of which will start arriving within 24 to 72 hours after the storm’s initial landfall, ALAN said.