From HealthDrone to FrugalDrone: Value-Sensitive Design of a Blood Sample Transportation Drone

Abstract

In this work the preliminary design of HealthDrone, a cargo drone for blood sample transportation in Denmark, is performed using the value-sensitive design (VSD) methodology and an ethical framework. The ethical framework includes five ethical principles: beneficence, non-maleficence, human autonomy, justice, and explicability. First, a commercially available Wingcopter 178 drone is analyzed in the context of the blood sample transportation case; then, a redesigned drone is proposed. The redesigned drone is renamed FrugalDrone to signify its main beneficent characteristic: providing inexpensive transportation of blood samples. FrugalDrone's design addresses other relevant human values including health, safety, accountability, and environmental impacts. This work is aimed at the drone design community and interdisciplinary researchers. It contributes by evolving the VSD methodology via an ethical framework and applies it to the emerging domain of drones in public healthcare.