The city of Arlington is exploring innovative ways to get food to those in need—including the use of drone deliveries and autonomous vehicles. Today the city offered a “demo day” to show off its tech in the midst of a week-long pilot exercise.

The demo, held at the city’s Julia Burgen Park playground, featured a drone flyover by Miami, Florida-based Aerialoop, a close-up ground look at one of Aerialoop’s drones, and an autonomous electric ground vehicle from Arlington-based Mozee.

The companies’ drones and ground vehicles are being used this week to test the delivery of around 150 boxes of nonperishable food to participating Arlington households.

Aerialoop’s ALT6-4 delivery drone [Photo: City of Arlington]

Mozee—which was based in Dallas before relocating to Arlington late last year—makes driverless, electric, multi-passenger vehicles that aim to “reshape the future of travel.” Aerialoop is a leader in urban drone logistics, specializing in developing and implementing drone delivery networks for cities and industries. Its ALT6-4 VTOL delivery drones—6-foot-long, battery-powered drones that can carry nearly nine pounds—are being used in the pilot.

On hand at today’s demo were representatives from the city of Arlington and project partners in the city’s Multimodal Delivery pilot program. The program’s partners are the Tarrant Area Food Bank, the University of Texas at Arlington, the North Central Texas Council of Governments, the Dallas-Fort Worth Clean Cities Coalition (hosted at the NCTCOG), Airspace Link, Aerialoop, and Mozee.

Mulimodal Delivery pilot progam

Arlington’s multimodal food bank delivery pilot program is getting a week-long test through this Friday. [Photo: City of Arlington]

Arlington’s Multimodal Delivery pilot program aims to test the efficiency and scalability of using autonomous, electric delivery vehicles to reduce greenhouse gas emissions while serving residents in need with much-needed food deliveries. The program’s first round of grocery deliveries was successfully completed last September, the city said.

The project is being funded with help from a $780,182 U.S. Department of Energy grant Dallas Innovates first wrote about in 2023. The goal of the two-year study: “to test and evaluate the use of no-emission or low-emission uncrewed aircraft and ground robots to deliver essential food items to individuals who are underserved.”

Autonomous vehicle from Arlington-based Mozee. [Photo: City of Arlington]

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