Singapore consortium to use drones for shore-to-ship parcel delivery

Singapore-based ST Engineering, Sumitomo Corporation, and Skyports are joining forces for a nine-month drone delivery pilot, wherein drones will be used for shore-to-ship parcel delivery of maritime essentials.

With a goal to establish a drone delivery network capable of carrying parcel payloads up to 10kg, each consortium member will bring a different operational and technological capability to the table. ST Engineering will provide the drone technology using its end-to-end solution, DroNet; Skyports will jointly conduct the Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) flight operations with ST Engineering; while Sumitomo Corporation will provide go-to-market support, including their own fleet of vessels. 

Traditionally, boats are used to deliver maritime essentials. However, using drones can slash the response time and logistics costs significantly, while speeding up turnaround for shore-to-ship delivery. The group further points out that replacing boat delivery with drones will help to reduce carbon emissions and contribute to the maritime industry’s overall efforts to operate sustainably.

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Stressing that close to two years of R&D efforts have gone into developing a shore-to-ship drone delivery solution, Teong Soo Soon, VP and head of UA Systems at ST Engineering, explains:

Drones have evolved rapidly in recent years to emerge as safe and robust alternatives to traditionally labor- and time-intensive missions. We look forward to being a strong enabler for customers who wish to leverage unmanned technology to inject higher efficiency and sustainability into their operations.

Sanjay Suresh, head of BD and APAC operations at Skyports, adds:

As home to one of the busiest ports in the world, Singapore is the ideal setting in which to demonstrate to customers the potential for drones to transform maritime logistics by moving essential supplies in a more cost-effective and sustainable way.

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