ST Engineering forms consortium to use unmanned aircraft for deliveries

Included in the consortium are Sumitomo Corporation and Skyports. 

A consortium aimed at providing Unmanned Aircraft (UA) services for shore-to-ship parcel delivery in the Lion City was announced by ST Engineering. 

Joining the group are Sumitomo and Skyports, with each member contributing their respective operational and technological expertise to expand the use of autonomous UA for the deliveries of maritime essentials to vessels at the shore. 

This also includes a nine-month pilot programme with the goal of establishing a UA delivery network capable of carrying payloads up to 10kg. 

ST Engineering will be in charge of providing the UA technology through DroNet, its end-to-end solution, whilst Skyports will conduct the Beyond Visual Line of Sight flight operations with the aforementioned Group. Sumitomo Corporation, meanwhile, will be in charge of go-to-market support, as well as having their own fleet of vessels. 

“UA Systems have evolved rapidly in recent years to emerge as safe and robust alternatives to traditionally labour- and time-intensive missions. We are excited to be partnering Sumitomo Corporation and SkyPorts in the pilot launch of unmanned services for shore-to-ship parcel delivery after spending close to two years of R&D efforts to develop the solution. We look forward to being a strong enabler for customers which wish to leverage unmanned technology to inject higher efficiency and sustainability into their operations,” said Teong Soo Soon, VP & Head of UA Systems, ST Engineering.