The document summarizes the accomplishments of a project using drones to deliver tuberculosis samples in remote areas of Nepal. It states that over 150 flights have been carried out, delivering over 1,000 patient samples between 8 health posts and 2 central health facilities. Local community health workers have said the drones have reduced sample delivery times from 2-3 days to 25 minutes. The Nepali government aims to replicate the program for TB control in other remote areas if successful.

1. The purpose of this project is to assist the Ministry of Health and Population and the National Tuberculosis
Center by generating the data necessary to assess the suitability of the approach for nationwide expansion.
We are currently working on a detailed progress report with all our partners. In the meantime, we want to share
a handful of our joint accomplishments thus far:
According to the Nepali Times, community Health Worker Sita GC says the drones are god-sent because
they can deliver samples in 25 minutes, where earlier it took two-to-three days. “Logistics was a huge
problem because of unreliable transport; now it is easy to diagnose and treat quickly,” she adds.
According to the Nepali Times, if the DrOTS program is successful, then the Ministry of Health seeks to
replicate it for TB control in other remote areas.
Secured formal support from more than 10 key government agencies and ministries.
Received the first-ever Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) permissions in Nepal for medical cargo drone
deliveries.
Repurposed the DJI M600 industrial drone into a reliable, affordable, locally operable and locally repairable
cargo drone. This repurposed cargo drone is also being used by Dominican Republic Flying Labs. More on
the solution here. For the price of a laptop, anyone can repurpose their M600 drone into a fully functioning
cargo drone.
Trained both Nepal Flying Labs and DroNepal to operate the cargo drone deliveries completely
independently. To date, over 150 flights have been carried out and more than 1,000 patient samples have
been collected from 8 health posts in rural villages and delivered directly to two central health facilities. Note
that WeRobotics incubated DroNepal in 2017 as part of our Business Incubation Program, which co-creates
locally owned and locally managed businesses that offer drones as service. Thanks to the DrOTS project,
we’ve been able to expand Dronepal’s expertise from mapping drones to cargo drones.
Organized multiple community engagement programs with local and national stakeholders to present the
project and ask for their permission to operate the cargo drones in their airspace.
Read more at https://blog.werobotics.org/2019/10/09/how-locally-led-cargo-drone-deliveries-in-nepal-can-
improve-health-outcomes/
Newsletter Q3 2019
Drone Optimized Therapy System (DrOTS) -
Our accomplishments thus far

2. Newsletter April, 2019
Photo Gallery
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c/o Naxa
House No. 186, Gajanana Plaza
Naagpokharai Road
Naxal, Kathmandu
nepal@flyinglabs.org
https://flyinglabs.org/nepal/
https://www.facebook.com/nepalflyinglabs/
Key achievement
Other activities
Our coordinator at Nepal Flying Labs -
Uttam Pudasaini participated in a one day
interaction workshop titled "Flight 4
Purpose : Combating land tenure
insecurity in Nepal’s remote and
vulnerable areas using UAVs" on 29th of
July. The workshop was jointly organized
by Department of Geomatics Engineering,
Kathmandu University and Kadastre
International, Netherland. Uttam
presented on the topic "UAV Applications
in Nepal"and shared about some of the
recent drones related projects by Nepal
Flying Labs, NAXA and Dronepal. He also
highlighted the new initiatives like forming
an Association of Drone professionals for
having a common voice on Drones related
issues, need of creating standards for
drones related services. Mr. Subash Jha ,
Dy. Director from Civil Aviation Authority
of Nepal also participated in the event.
Representatives from Ministry of Land
Management and Land Management
training center also presented about new
drones related surveying and mapping
initiatives by the government of Nepal.
Uttam shares about the Unusual Solutions Competition to the
participants of the workshop ''Flight 4 Purpose''
Celebrating Flying Labs Day: Drone cake celbration at Nepal
Flying Labs, 25th of September

3. Newsletter Q2 2019
Project: Drone Optimized Therapy System
(DrOTS)
During the second quarter of this year, Nepal Flying Labs together with all other partners finally began the field
work of the DrOTS Project.
DrOTS is a pilot project that aims to improve case finding by linking community health workers (CHWs) with
state of the art diagnostic tools (GeneXpert) via unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) / “drones”. The purpose of
this project is to assist the Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP) and National Tuberculosis Center (NTC)
by generating the data necessary to assess the suitability of the approach for nationwide expansion.
The project began from October 2018 and it’s being implemented in two Municipalites of Pyuthan district,
Nepal. Nepal Flying Labs worked for the last six months to secure necessary permissions from different
government organizations and local stakeholders.The engineering team from WeRobotics and technical team
from Nepal Flying Labs started the field works on May 20 and carried out multiple test flights to and from the
two major health centers : Pyuthan Hospital and Bhingri Publich Health Center to nearby health posts. On the
2nd June 2019, the inauguration of DrOTS project was successfully conducted in Pyuthan district with the
objective of sharing the details of the project with concerned stakeholders.
The program was an extravagant affair, having active participation of government from Ministry of Health and
Population, National TB Center, Health Office Pyuthan and other stakeholders & partners.
The program was chaired by Bishal Subedi, Chief of Health office, Pyuthan; followed by Chief Guest Mahendra
Shrestha, Chief, Department of Health Coordination, MoHP;
Special Guest: Dr. Bhim Singh Tinkari , Director, NTC;
Peter Small, Principal Investigator,
Stony Brook University;
Badri Nath Gaire, CDO, Pyuthan;
Ghamsyam Pokharel, Chief of NTD;
Vector Borne Disease Control Section, EDCD;
Netra Bahadur Roka, Mayor, Swargadwari Municipality and
Arjun Kumar Kakshyapati, Mayor, Pyuthan Municipality.
The program was formally inaugurated by Chief Guest Mr. Mahendra Shrestha, Chief, Department of Health
Coordination, MoHP, with presence of BNMT team, the stakeholders including partners. It's the first time in the
history of TB control in Nepal, that the drones are being utilized for detecting the TB patients from remote &
geographically challenged areas. Speaking at the event , Nepal Ministry of Health & Population spokesperson
Mahendra Shrestha says that if the tests are successful, the government will take over the program and try to
replicate it for TB control in other remote areas.

4. Newsletter April, 2019
Photo Gallery
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Nepal Flying Labs
c/o Naxa
House No. 186, Gajanana Plaza
Naagpokharai Road
Naxal, Kathmandu
nepal@flyinglabs.org
https://flyinglabs.org/nepal/
https://www.facebook.com/nepalflyinglabs/
Continue the field activity under
DrOTS project and fly drones from
hospital to the rural health posts to
collect sputum samples and have
them tested at the hospital.
Use of drones to monitor the ongoing
reconstruction work in earthquake
affected communities in Nepal.
Organize Drone Meetup 2.0 together
with other local partners who are using
drones for multiple purposes.
Field Survey- DrOTS project
Nepal Flying Labs, WeRobotics and India Flying Labs team
Began aerial flights between hospital
and health centers in Pyuthan
Municipaltiy, Pyuthan under the DrOTS
Project.
Formal Inauguration of the DrOTS
Project: Active participation of
government from Ministry of Health and
Population, National TB Center, Health
Office Pyuthan and other stakeholders
& partners.
Key achievement
Upcoming projects
Nepal Flying labs together with other local partners explaining the details of
DrOTS project to local government officials, chief of security offices during an
interaction session organized at Bijuwar, Pyuthan

5. Newsletter Q1 2019
Project: Using drones to estimate dumping sites
volume in Kathmandu
Data support for research
Kathmandu has been struggling with garbage for several years.
The landfill site at Sisdole in Okharpauwa, Nuwakot district, has
already reached its maximum capacity. The government,
including the metropolitan offices in Kathmandu, has been
working to build a long-term facility for proper waste disposal in
Banchare Danda, a location near the current landfill site but the
progress has been too slow.
The technical team at NAXA together with Nepal Flying Labs
and their business incubation program’s winner Dronepal,
jointly proposed to the Investment Board of Nepal (which is
currently supporting the construction of permanent structures at
the new proposed locations), to use drone-captured images for
preparing accurate maps. Compared to widely used existing
methods of ground survey, the drone survey provided better
data sets in a short time and better resolution. The orthophoto
and topographical maps, combined, helped in the planning
process by providing high quality metrics which would
otherwise be much difficult with the traditional means of
surveying in such complex topographical conditions.
Upcoming projects
TB is the 4th leading cause of death and leading infectious
disease cause of death in Nepal. DRoTS project aims to
improve TB case detection and treatment through Active
Case Finding, drone transport of specimens and supplies,
and rapid molecular diagnostics.
Nepal Flying Labs and Nepalese
drone startups Dronepal and Airlift
together with India Flying Labs
organized the first-ever drone
meetup on March 23, 2019 at
Kathmandu.
The initiative witnessed
participation of 30 UAV enthusiasts
all agreeing towards forming a
formal community to advocate the
drone facilitation and regulation in
context of Nepal.
The meetup primarily sought the
establishment of an association of
drone professionals, enthusiasts
and advocates that could act as a
platform to give voice to those
representing the needs drones-for-
good users, hence bridging the
gap with policy makers. Read more
at : https://blog.werobotics.org/

6. Newsletter April, 2019
UAV Rapid Response Task
Force for Disasters
Nepal Flying Labs worked as a
technical partner to provide mapping
service to map ongoing
reconstruction works after Nepal
earthquake in one of the earthquake
affected municipality within
Kathmandu valley.
The region concerned are Chhaling
Municipality, Changunarayan and
Bhaktapur. Moreover, Nepal Flying
Labs together with NAXA is doing an
experimental project that aims at
testing the usability of drones in
monitoring the building reconstruction
status in Kavrepalanchwok district.
The team is working as a technical
partner for ISPOS, a global market
research and consulting form.
Photo Gallery
Mapping dumpling sites project meeting
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nepal@flyinglabs.org
1st Consultation Meeting on UAV Rapid
Response Take Force for Disasters
Nepal Flying Labs
c/o Naxa
House No. 186, Gajanana Plaza
Naagpokharai Road
Naxal, Kathmandu
https://flyinglabs.org/nepal/
https://www.facebook.com/nepalflyinglabs/