This drone-agnostic software could be big for drone delivery

Drone delivery these days is far from the ubiquitous mode of package transportation that perhaps some expected when Jeff Bezos first announced Amazon Prime Air back in 2013. There are a number of reasons why — policy and public perception, just to name a few — but a big challenge is simply scaling it. Drone delivery these days is primarily limited to operations by major companies like Wing (the sister company of Google), or one-off tests by medium-sized companies, like Domino’s Pizza. The Anra SmartSkies Delivery software could change that.

The Anra SmartSkies Delivery is hardware agnostic, which means that any drone — whether it’s an off-the-shelf DJI drone or a custom-built drone — can fly via the software and conduct drone deliveries (assuming the drone itself is capable of carrying those packages).

Airspce management company ANRA Technologies recently announced its SmartSkies Delivery software, functional for both web and mobile use. The software is the ultimate drone delivery manager. Whether you’re conducting drone deliveries of packages or food to residents or other commercial businesses, delivering medical supplies to remote areas, or anything else in between the Anra SmartSkies Delivery software is a platform designed to exchange information and data to actually automate safe, compliant, and efficient cargo and package drone deliveries.

How the Anra SmartSkies Delivery software works

Vendors, drone manufacturers, and drone service providers all have accounts with the Anra SmartSkies Delivery software, which aggregates all aspect of deliveries: managing orders, inventory, and provisioning products, and operating the drone itself. Even package recipients are looped in. For example, the app can provide tracking and status updates to customers on a mobile app.

No matter which stage in the process of drone delivery that player comes into, they’ll be able to jump into the drone delivery operation all through a single, customizable software.

How does UTM play into this?

ANRA has primarily been a UTM company, serving as an international provider of end-to-end drone operations and traffic management solutions for drone operators and airspace managers. UTM (short for unmanned traffic management) is essentially air traffic control for drones — and is a major component of unlocking widespread drone use.

And even though the new Anra SmartSkies Delivery software has many non-UTM components like inventory tracing, the big selling point of this software is that the drone’s flight is conducted through ANRA’s premiere product, the ANRA SmartSkies UTM network.

Learn more: 5 things that need to happen before UTM systems can lift off

All stakeholders in the supply chain have certain levels of access and credentials to view, control, and manage their respective tasks across the network and to maintain real-time situational awareness on inventory tracking, package health status, and order progress.

When does the Anra SmartSkies Delivery software rollout?

SmartSkies Delivery is set for rollout soon to ANRA’s enterprise customers.

But it’s already got users including the CAELUS (Care & Equity – Healthcare Logistics UAS Scotland) project, which is a consortium of thirteen organizations developing the UK’s first national drone delivery network. Those organizations together are working on a plan transport essential medicines, blood, organs, and other medical supplies throughout Scotland — and SmartSkies Delivey is involved.

The ANRA SmartSkies Delivery app is also helping conduct drone food deliveries in India. That app is what powers the drone delivery company of Swiggy, one of India’s largest online food delivery platforms. Swiggy has been testing drone delivery in two different cities in India, Ropar and Etah.

ANRA, which is headquartered in Washington DC with regional offices in London and New Delhi, participates in numerous standards development organizations, policy groups, and trade associations. The company is an official NASA collaborator for their UTM solution, and has helped to design a DroneUSS UTM platform for both the Nevada UAS Test Site and the Virginia Tech Mid-Atlantic Aviation Partnership drone test sites. It also has been working alongside big players like Wing, AiRXOS a GE Company, AirMap and Uber.