# Short-Range Transportation Using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) during Disasters in Japan
## 1 Introduction  
Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), or so-called \"drones for civilian use\", have been widely used for purposes such as aerial photography [1], information collection during emergencies [2], and goods transportation [3]. Today, larger types of small UAVs are on the verge of becoming commercial mediums for goods transportation in Europe and the United States. However, urban implementation ofthis approach is difficult in Japan because of legislation that aims to reduce falling risks, i.e., the danger of a UAV falling, which can result in damage to public facilities and injuries to people along the UAV's transport route. Furthermore, the history of UAV-assisted transportation for medical supplies has progressively included the transportation of blood specimens [4; 5], vaccines [6], and blood transfusions [7]. The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) used UAVs to transport blood samples for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) testing in Malawi [8]. During the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, a market research organization named Research and Markets presented five benefits of UAVs regarding their functions related to health security, virus detection, spraying of disinfectants, food transportation, crowd management, and specimen transportation [9]. Before the pandemic, a UAV carrying blood specimens crashed into Lake Zurich [10]; fortunately, this incident did not result in a spread of infection. During peacetime, UAV flight paths that pass over people on the ground are not permitted to transport specimens such as sputum from patients suspected of being infected with tuberculosis or COVID-19 and are not permitted to transport blood samples containing infectious pathogens. It has been reported that the quality of blood transported by fixed-wing UAVs in Rwanda and other countries may not match the quality of a normal blood transfusion product [11]; furthermore, the feasibility of transporting blood transfusion products using multicopters in Japan was also reported [12]. The medical use of UAVs, as represented by the transportation of blood transfusion products, is essentially a countermeasure to traffic blockage. It is important to ensure the safety of UAV flights and the quality of transported medicines and medical materials; optimal transportation environments, including temperature control for goods and other conditions, should be maintained. During the COVID-19 epidemic in Italy, it was reported that UAV use for transportation of personal protective equipment (PPE) and automatic external defibrillators (AEDs) contributed to risk reduction [13]. Generally, it is important to note that traffic can be disrupted by incidents such as a fallen bridge and can also be disrupted by the artificial blockades that arise during an infectious disease outbreak. Some studies have mentioned the use of UAVs for managing and monitoring disaster areas [14]. Furthermore, research has been conducted on UAV flight paths for efficient surveillance and other activities [15]. In contrast, this study focuses on the transportation of medical equipment and food, which are directly related to everyday life. In 2017, [PERSON] published a report on UAV-assisted transportation of drugs, automatic external defibrillators, blood samples, and vaccines. All of the transportation was carried out by Matternet, Zipline DHL Parcel, Flirtey, and Delft University, and the selected load weights were in the range of 2 to 4 kg [16]. We have long believed that using such lightweight transport vehicles for medical and disaster mitigation resources may prove ineffective during a real disaster. Out-of-sight flights are impractical if communication and safety cannot be ensured during a disaster. In contrast, UAVs with the same transport capacity as in this study could be used for medicine transport and disaster mitigation. Therefore, we set out to prove the results of the existing studies in a series of trials.