PABLO AIR, in cooperation with South Korea’s 7-Eleven branch, has opened the first convenience store drone delivery station in Korea for the commercialization of drone delivery.

The drone delivery station primarily consists of a control tower and the drone’s vertical take-off and landing aerodrome, which allows one-stop processing, from the taking of delivery orders to the completion of the delivery flight.

PABLO AIR’s drone delivery service is a beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) flight in which the drone is controlled with a wGCS (Web-based Ground Control System) paired with a smart mobility integrated control system (PAMNet, PABLO AIR Mobility Network) for safe and agile operation of the aircraft.

Customers can order convenience store items for drone delivery through the app Allivery (All+Delivery) and have their items sent to the delivery station in a rural resort town of Gapyeong which is about 1 km away, or three minutes by drone. After an order is received, the items are moved by a winch connected to the drone station to the rooftop, where the helipad is located. Once the items have been loaded in the drone’s delivery box, the ground control system operator sends the drone on an autonomous flight to the delivery station. After completing QR authorization, the customer can safely take out their ordered items, and then the drone returns back to its starting point.

Drone Delivery is available from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. (before sunset) from Tuesday to Saturday every week starting from July 13. From now until the end of this year, there is no minimum order amount and delivery is free of charge.

The drone, which is 990 x 990 x 750 mm in size, has a maximum payload (PA-H3) of 5 kg and a maximum flight time of 25 minutes. For the pilot program, the drone flies at an average speed of 36 km/h (10 m/s), and since the delivery station is only 1 km from the convenience store, the drone can complete its delivery in about 150 seconds.

(Photo: PABLO AIR)