Smart Medical Drone Delivery Project – Hajj 1446H
- Customer
- NUPCO
- Project manager on the customer side
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- Year of project completion
- 2025
- Project timeline
- January, 2025 - June, 2025
- Project scope
- 3000 man-hours
- Goals
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The AI-Powered Smart Medical Drone Delivery Project aims to transform healthcare logistics during Hajj by utilizing intelligent drones to autonomously transport critical medical supplies between nupco warehouses and hospitals in holy sites (Arafat and Mina) during busy hajj season.
By integrating artificial intelligence for route optimization, real time tracking, and predictive flight management, the project reduces delivery times from over 90 minutes to under 5 minutes. It enhances operational efficiency, safety, and reliability in time sensitive medical deliveries, representing a major step toward nupco’s vision of digital transformation and smart healthcare logistics. - Project Results
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The project successfully demonstrated the world’s first AI powered medical drone delivery operation during Hajj 1446H, achieving a breakthrough in healthcare logistics. Delivery time between nupco warehouses and hospitals in Arafat and Mina was reduced from over 90 minutes to less than 5 minutes and in some routes under 3 minutes only on a higher speed, ensuring faster access to critical medical supplies. The system achieved 100% mission success with full operational safety and regulatory compliance under the supervision of MOI and MOD.
The initiative validated the feasibility of autonomous medical logistics in complex, high-density environments and laid the foundation for nationwide expansion. It positioned nupco and Saudi Arabia as pioneers in smart healthcare logistics and AI driven supply chain innovation.
The uniqueness of the project
The AI-Powered Smart Medical Drone Delivery Project is the first of its kind in the world to enable autonomous delivery of medical supplies within the holy sites during Hajj season, one of the most logistically complex events globally.Unlike traditional transport, the project integrates AI driven flight planning, real time tracking, and data analytics to ensure rapid and reliable deliveries in high density environments.
It combines drone technology, AI optimization, and healthcare logistics in a unified operational framework. This pioneering initiative not only sets a new benchmark for smart logistics in Saudi Arabia but also demonstrates how advanced technology can enhance healthcare accessibility and emergency readiness in critical scenarios.
- Used software
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The project utilized DJI M350 AI enabled drones equipped with advanced flight controllers and payload management systems for secure medical transport. Operations were supported through a centralized command and control dashboard on DJI Flighthub, integrating AI analytics, real-time telemetry, and route optimization algorithms.The software ecosystem included:
Auxiliary systems included on site drone stations, battery swap modules, Smart parachute module, and emergency override controls, ensuring safe and uninterrupted operations in a high density, restricted airspace environment.- DJI Flighthub Cloud Platform: for predictive flight optimization and real-time data analytics.
- GIS based Mapping System : for automated route planning and geofencing within the Hajj zones.
- Live Tracking & Monitoring Dashboard : for operational visibility, risk alerts, and performance analytics.
- Difficulty of implementation
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The implementation of the AI powered medical drone delivery system during Hajj was exceptionally complex and unprecedented in scale. The process of obtaining flight and operational permits took over one year, involving more than ten coordination meetings with the Ministry of Interior, Public Security, Presidency of State, Royal Guard, Ministry of National Guard, Royal Saudi Air Force, General Authority of Civil Aviation, and the Ministry of Health.The project required extensive planning, feasibility studies, and multiple field tests to ensure operational safety and compliance in restricted airspace. Teams faced significant challenges related to airspace coordination, extreme weather, network jams, crowd density, and real time flight monitoring. Despite these difficulties, nupco successfully unified efforts across all stakeholders, completing the project with zero incidents and setting a new global benchmark for AI powered medical drone operations during one of the world’s most complex annual events.
- Project Description
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The AI Powered Smart Medical Drone Delivery Project – Hajj 1446H represents a groundbreaking milestone in Saudi Arabia’s journey toward smart healthcare logistics and digital transformation.The project addressed a long standing operational challenge, the delay in delivering urgent medical items due to heavy traffic, restricted movement zones, and limited ground access during peak Hajj operations.
Spearheaded by nupco’s CIO, the project introduced an innovative, AI driven drone delivery system designed to autonomously transport critical medical supplies between NUPCO warehouses and hospitals located in the holy sites of Arafat and Mina during the Hajj season.
By leveraging AI powered drones, NUPCO successfully reduced delivery time from more than 90 minutes to under 5 minutes, enabling faster emergency response and improved patient care.Built on DJI’s FlightHub platform, the system integrates real time tracking, route management, and live operational monitoring to ensure safe and efficient drone operations in one of the world’s most complex and congested environments. The centralized command and control dashboard provides visibility across all flights, enabling mission scheduling, automated alerts, and performance tracking across multiple routes, ensuring full compliance with safety and regulatory requirements.
The operational setup featured strategically positioned drone stations, 3 in Arafat and 4 in Mina, equipped with battery swap modules, payload verification systems, and emergency override controls.
Each drone flight was fully monitored and logged for safety, compliance, and data analysis, following the regulations of the Ministry of interior (MOI), Ministry of defense (MOD), General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) and other Governmental entities.
This initiative marks the first medical drone delivery operation ever conducted during Hajj, and one of the first projects of its kind globally, showcasing Saudi Arabia’s leadership in applying emerging technologies to healthcare logistics., combining advanced AI algorithms, cloud computing, and autonomous aviation. It reflects nupco’s strategic vision of adopting emerging technologies to optimize healthcare logistics, enhance national resilience, and support the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 objectives for innovation, sustainability, and digital transformation.
Beyond operational success, the project serves as a proof of innovation and collaboration, bringing together multiple national and international partners , It established a repeatable model for future expansion across other regions in Saudi Arabia and demonstrated how AI and drone technology can work together to enable smart, sustainable, and data driven healthcare supply chains.
In essence, the AI Powered Smart Medical Drone Delivery Project is not only a technological achievement but also a strategic enabler of smarter, faster, and safer healthcare logistics, setting a new global benchmark for innovation in medical logistics during mass events.
- Project geography
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The AI Powered Smart Medical Drone Delivery Project was implemented across the holy sites of Arafat and Mina in Makkah, Saudi Arabia, one of the most challenging operational environments in the world due to high population density, restricted airspace, and dynamic movement during Hajj.
The project established dedicated drone stations at nupco warehouses and targeted hospitals selected based on historical demand data and predictive analytics, focusing on locations with the highest frequency of urgent medical requests and critical supply needs. This data driven approach ensured maximum operational impact and resource optimization. The project’s geographical scope and analytical foundation enable it to serve as a replicable model for future nationwide expansion to other regions in KSA, supporting nupco’s vision of a smarter, faster, and more resilient healthcare supply network. - Additional presentations:
- Drones Features 1446-2025.pdfIMG_0280.jpgIMG_0278.jpgDrones Impact study.pdfIMG_0279.PNG
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