Food delivery by drones has been launched at Mangsang Beach on the east coast

Gangwon-do and Donghae-si has started a pilot project with a domestic UAM airframe manufacturing and service company “This Is Engineering(TIE)” for food delivery by autonomous flight drones from July 28 to connect tourists at Mangsang Beach in Donghae-si with the store of Mangsang Beach Merchants Association.

The project will provide free delivery of food to customers visiting Mangsang Beach for a month from July 28 to August 28, the summer vacation period.

A 5-meter diameter fence has been installed at the shopping area of Mangsang Beach as the departure point of the drone, and on the deck of Mangsang Auto Camping Resort and Gigok Beach as the destination of the drone. The managing staff has been deployed to deliver ordered items to consumers.

Consumers who want to get delivery by drones, while visiting Mangsang Auto Camping Resort, Hanok Resort, and Gigok Beach, can come to the nearby "Drone Delivery Zone" to order food from the Mangsang Beach shopping mall, and receive food by autonomous flight drone along the coastline.

Until now, visitors of the beach have experienced inconvenience because the stores and restaurants are 500m to 2km away, but the pilot project is expected to greatly improve the convenience of food and beverage by installing "drone delivery zones" within 50 to 200m from Mangsang Beach and Gigok Beach.

This Is Engineering Co., Ltd., which carries out a pilot drone delivery project, was selected in December 2020 to support the "Spare Unicorn Special Guarantee," a small and medium-sized venture business that discovers preliminary unicorns verified in the market and fosters them as unicorn companies with a corporate value of more than 1 trillion won. The preliminary unicorn special guarantee project supports up to 10 billion won per company.

Gangwon-do expects the project to serve as an opportunity for commercialization of the drone delivery industry in the province and plans to find additional drone delivery win-win models that connect large resorts in the province and local commercial districts in the future.

Kim Kwang-chul, head of the strategic industry division in Gangwon Province said "Through this year's pilot project for autonomous flight drone delivery in Gangwon Province, companies will accumulate experience related to drone delivery and strengthen residents' acceptance in our province.” And “In the future, we plan to foster the industry by improving consumer convenience and gradually expanding the delivery of medium and large drones (weight of 150kg or more) in connection with the platforms being developed by companies."

Reported by Smart City Today