This photo, provided by GS Caltex, shows a drone that succeeded in a contactless goods delivery test.
SEOUL, Oct. 14 (Korea Bizwire) — GS Caltex Corp., South Korea’s second-largest refiner by sales, is speeding up the development of a next-generation delivery service that combines drones and robots and is based at gas stations.
The company held the nation’s first demonstration of the next-generation delivery service on Tuesday that features the combination of drones and self-driving robots for the delivery of items at Jangdo Island off the country’s southern port city of Yeosu.
After a customer on Jangdo Island placed an order for daily necessities selling at a GS25 convenience store via a mobile app, a drone loaded with the ordered items flew from a nearby GS Caltex gas station.
The drone made an automatic flight at an altitude of 80 meters above the ground, flying 0.9 kilometers across the water.
After arriving at the island, the drone made a vertical landing up to 1 meter above the spot where an unmanned self-driving robot was waiting.
This photo, provided by GS Caltex, shows an autonomous delivery robot that succeeded in a test delivery to Jangdo Island off the country’s southern port city of Yeosu on Oct. 13, 2020.
When the robot’s cargo box opened, the drone dropped the ordered items and returned to its base.
The unmanned self-driving robot drove a distance of 0.7 kilometers to the final destination. It took about 10 minutes for the customer to take delivery of the ordered items.
GS Caltex said that the use of its gas stations as a hub for drone deliveries would contribute to making logistics services more efficient and convenient.
It added that drone deliveries would help deliver daily necessities and relief goods to remote areas that have difficulty accessing existing distribution infrastructure. In other words, it would contribute to removing blind spots in logistics services.
Kevin Lee (kevinlee@koreabizwire.com)
