Fancy your next online shopping parcel being delivered by a flying robot? Looking to make that into a reality, SingPost signed a partnership agreement with Airbus Helicopters today at the Rotorcraft Asia exhibition held in Singapore. For the uninitiated, Airbus Helicopters is a division of Airbus, the French company that makes our planes. The company is starting development on “Skyways”, an aerial drone delivery system for urban environments like our fair city.
SingPost’s role in the project would be handling postal and e-commerce logistics, along with contributing expertise on software and delivery systems. The goal for the drones is to provide a service that is highly efficient, reliable and seamless. If all goes well, an initial trial involving transporting small packages using a drone around the National University of Singapore campus is expected by early 2018.
While such autonomous operations are currently not permitted under our existing airspace regulations, the trial would be a key step to ensure commercial drones can operate safely and accurately over urban areas. According to both companies, after the NUS trial, the project will involve delivering goods like medicine, oil samples, and spare electronic parts from a parcel station on the Singapore coast to ships.
Here’s hoping the drones emerge victorious, after all, it can’t be any worse than some of the experiences we’ve had with SingPost.
This story originally appeared on Stuff Singapore, bringing you what’s next in the world of tech and gadgets, with a twist.
