Is that a drone delivering mail in Singapore?
SingPost said Thursday it has become the world's first postal service to successfully use an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV, also known as a drone) for point-to-point recipient-authenticated mail delivery.
The drone was used to carry out a last mile mail and packet delivery trial between Lorong Halus and Pulau Ubin. It was built as part of a joint development with the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA), SingPost said in a statement.
In the test flight that took five minutes, the drone flew a total distance of two kilometres as it carried a payload of a letter as well as a t-shirt in a packet. The drone is said to be equipped with enhanced safety features and a prototype app that ensures the mail reaches its intended recipient.
The drone can carry a payload of up to half a kilogramme, fly at a height of up to 45 metres and travel a distance of 2.3 kilometres, SingPost said. The focus of the flight was to test the drone technology and safety boundaries.
SingPost said its exploration of drone technology is partly aimed at tapping the burgeoning e-commerce growth in Asia-Pacific. The B2C eCommerce Market in Asia Pacific is expected to reach US$175 billion by 2016.
“There is immense potential in UAV technology for last-mile mail and ecommerce delivery.” Said Dr Bernard Leong, head of Digital Services in SingPost. “Not only do we want to enable or accelerate eCommerce, we hope to contribute towards building Singapore into a Smart Nation, where technology improves the quality of lives.”
“Although it will be a while before it is viable for drone mail delivery to take off in Singapore, taking into consideration commercial and safety factors; this first step by SingPost and IDA demonstrates what Singapore is trying out with our Smart Nation vision – to have the various parts of our ecosystem collaborate, experiment with new ways of doing things, and in the process, literally aim for the sky with new technology,” said Jacqueline Poh, Managing Director, Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA).
