The archive · Logistics & Supply · Strategic decision · 2025–2026
Delivrone's AED drone wins France's first SAMU go-ahead
After a year of tests, Delivrone's AED drone got France's first SAMU authorization, letting Rouen's emergency centre fly a defibrillator to bystanders in 2026.
Delivrone
What the business is
Delivrone is a French drone-logistics startup founded in 2021 in Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray, Normandy, focused on carrying light loads by drone. It developed the emergency-medical drone project with the region's SAMU and works with Sweden's Everdrone, which supplies the aircraft and takeoff infrastructure.
How it started
In France about 50,000 people suffer an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest every year, and the CHU de Rouen says the 30-day survival rate is below 5%; a fast shock from a defibrillator multiplies survival chances. Delivrone spent a year trialing an AED drone around Forges-les-Eaux with SAMU 76A, proving it could fit into real emergency calls before asking to use it routinely.
What happened
In July 2026, SAMU 76A of the CHU de Rouen obtained the authorization to use the emergency drone — a first in France, which the hospital said required an evolution of drone flight rules under the DSAC civil aviation safety directorate. When a witness calls 15 about a suspected cardiac arrest, the centre can now trigger the drone to carry an AED to within metres of the scene before emergency crews arrive. A base at Bois-Guillaume serves the Rouen métropole, with a second planned further east.
How it ended up
The €300,000 project — Région Normandie contributed €138,000 for the CHU and €113,000 for Delivrone, which invested €40,000 itself — moved from experiment to routine operation, with Delivrone handling operational follow-up alongside Everdrone. The hospital called the rollout a first in France; close to 400 cardiac arrests in people under 75 occur in its intervention zone each year.
Background
Delivrone is a Normandy drone-logistics startup founded in 2021 that spent a year testing an emergency medical drone around Forges-les-Eaux with SAMU 76A, the emergency medical service of Rouen's university hospital. The aircraft, supplied by Sweden's Everdrone, carries an automated external defibrillator and can be airborne within a minute of a dispatch order.
The test paid off in July 2026, when SAMU 76A obtained authorization to use the drone in routine cardiac-arrest calls — a first in France that the hospital says required an evolution of drone flight rules under the DSAC civil aviation safety directorate. When a witness calls 15, the centre can now dispatch the drone to drop an AED within metres of the scene before crews arrive.
The two-site project cost €300,000, with Région Normandie contributing €251,000 across the hospital and Delivrone, which invested €40,000 of its own. Delivrone now runs the service operationally with Everdrone, turning a public-health experiment into France's first authorized SAMU AED-drone operation.
What has to be true
- Defibrillators work only when used: France has about 500,000 of them, yet bystander use stays low, and a fast shock multiplies survival odds after cardiac arrest (BFM Normandie).
- The drone closes a distance problem: a roughly 750 g AED can reach the caller within about a minute of dispatch, day or night, across a 200 km² zone, while ground crews still travel (Tendance Ouest).
- A year of trials at Forges-les-Eaux proved the drone fits into real SAMU dispatch, giving hospital and regulator the evidence to authorize routine flights (BFM Normandie, Tendance Ouest).
- Région Normandie covered €251,000 of the €300,000 two-site investment, de-risking the pilot until authorization turned it into a service (Tendance Ouest, Rouen Normandy Invest).
What can be applied
Delivrone's year of real emergency-call trials, not a pitch, is what DSAC's drone-rule evolution and SAMU's go-ahead rewarded — evidence turns an experiment into a licensed service.
Aftermath
From July 2026 the SAMU of Rouen's university hospital can dispatch Delivrone's defibrillator drone on real cardiac-arrest calls, and the CHU called the rollout a first in France. Delivrone manages operational follow-up with Everdrone from the Bois-Guillaume base, with a second base planned east of the Rouen métropole; close to 400 cardiac arrests in people under 75 occur in the SAMU's zone each year. Whether the model spreads to other French emergency services will depend on how the DSAC-authorized flights perform in routine use and on who funds the next bases.
Sources
- "Une première en France": en Normandie, un drone livre un défibrillateur à côté de victimes d'arrêt cardiaque
- Seine-Maritime. Pour améliorer la prise en charge des arrêts cardiaques, le CHU de Rouen s'équipe d'un drone médical d'urgence
- À Rouen, un drone médical d'urgence renforce l'innovation en santé
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