Japan: Blueprint Drafted to Set Routes for Delivery Drones

The Japan­ese gov­ern­ment announced this week it has draft­ed plans to des­ig­nate spe­cif­ic routes for deliv­ery drones, reports asahi.com.

The blue­print, recent­ly pre­sent­ed dur­ing a meet­ing of the government’s ‘Coun­cil for the Real­i­sa­tion of the Vision for a Dig­i­tal Gar­den City Nation’, is intend­ed to spread the use of such craft amid the declin­ing use of trans­porta­tion net­works in depop­u­lat­ed areas. These routes will be pri­mar­i­ly for BVLOS flights.

To begin with, the gov­ern­ment plans to des­ig­nate an approx­i­mate 150 km route in and around the city of Chichibu, that lies north­west of Tokyo in the Saita­ma Pre­fec­ture, for drones to car­ry sup­plies start­ing in 2024.

Prime Min­is­ter Fumio Kishi­da speaks at a meet­ing of the ‘Coun­cil for the Realiz’sation of the Vision for a Dig­i­tal Gar­den City Nation’ in Tokyo on March 31st (Cred­it: Koichi Ueda)

The deliv­ery route will run along pow­er trans­mis­sion lines to allow car­go to be trans­port­ed in hilly and moun­tain­ous areas as well as for the drones to be recharged. Oth­er craft could also inspect the elec­tric cables.

Japan plans to devel­op more than 40,000 kms of drone flight routes. The gov­ern­ment is to estab­lish a study coun­cil in June to work out schemes for these and oth­er forms of dig­i­tal infra­struc­ture. It hopes the Cab­i­net will approve these plans before March next year and pro­mote invest­ment from the pub­lic and pri­vate sec­tors.

(News Source: https://www.asahi.com)

(Top image — Cred­it: Shut­ter­stock)