SANT’ANNA SCHOOL SPIN OFF COMPANY ABZERO CELEBRATES LEONARDO’S GENIUS ON SATURDAY, JANUARY 12, IN VINCI BY DRONE FLIGHT CARRYING BLOOD AND BIOFLUIDS, using a system of completely autonomous delivery
ABzero, a Sant’Anna School spin off company, is thrilled to be part of the Leonardo da Vinci 500th anniversary celebrations, displaying the extraordinary talent of the greatest genius of the Renaissance period.
From his aerodynamics investigation, Leonardo da Vinci explored ideas of flight engineering. Five hundred years after his death, painter, musician, engineer and inventor Leonardo da Vinci has secured his position as a true visionary. As ABzero revisits Leonardo’s legacy on January 12, there are not many better ways to celebrate his ingenious inventions than by experiencing a drone flight demonstration.
At the Polo Tecnologico Navacchio, ABzero develops innovative technologies for transporting blood and biofluids by drones. ABzero is ready to launch its smart software and drone system delivery service, carrying blood and vital medical supplies from Leonardo’s house to the Science and Technology museum in Vinci. Since October 2018, ABzero has performed demonstration flights to Pisa Internet Festival, Pontedera and Volterra (in December 2018).
Using a system of completely autonomous delivery drones, ABzero will deliver blood products to treat life-threatening conditions of hospital patients over the course of 60 minutes. Deliveries that would take a minimum of 1 hour by road can be accomplished in about 10 minutes by air.
24/7 ABzero drone deliveries showed that blood products can maintain temperature and cellular integrity. An average trip would cost 2,000 euros. This drone technology can solve some of the problems in the healthcare to reduce variability and costs. Researchers have designed a hollow providing storage at controlled temperature providing more reliability (the World Health Organization mandates that many blood products be kept at a cooled temperature of between 2C and 8C) and less expensive transport.
“We have received the financial support of Por-Fesr from the Molise region authority. Over the next two years ABzero investment will reach 2.5 million euros for research and development”, said architect Andrea Cannas and engineer Giuseppe Tortora as the Chief operating officer and the Chief executive officer at ABzero. “We believe that the Leonardo da Vinci 500th anniversary celebration in Vinci can contribute to highlight the social value of life-saving drones to society”.
“We are happy to host ABzero drones to mark the anniversary. Our Museum is taking part in worldwide celebrations of Leonardo’s work and legacy with special exhibitions. This new application can be understood as an exploration of the artist’s powerful inventions encompassing both science and technology that have shaped our modern society”, said Roberta Barsanti, director of Science and Technology museum in Vinci devoted to Leonardo.
“We participated in this project as the implications for delivering blood for transfusions are endless. Drone delivery can solve many problems in the healthcare industry's supply chain: demonstrations in Pontedera and Volterra were conducted under my supervision. We are looking for ways to get quality medical products to those in greatest need”, said Dr. Fabrizio Niglio, director of Unità Operativa di Immunoematologia e Trasfusione in Pontedera (Pisa).
