Korean drone company Pablo Air has a completed a simultaneous delivery using two drones in an 80km round trip.

The successful drone delivery took emergency medicines and everyday items from mainland Korea to nearby islands. The long flight followed by accurate, simultaneous delivery of items by two drones departing at the same time is expected to open up more widespread drone deliveries.

Pablo Air, a member company of Born2Global Centre, shipped medical supplies to two islands with two drones. The drones flew from Incheon New Port to Yeongheungdo Island and Jawoldo Island, a round-trip 80km journey, in one hour and 20 minutes.

This was the longest drone flight made in Korea and took place despite strong winds. Vertical take-off-and-landing (V-TOL) drones were used for this test flight, and were operated with an independently developed, web-based control system instead of the existing client-server control system.

Safety of the flight was ensured through real-time, simultaneous monitoring of both drones with three different communications technologies – LTE, satellite and RF wireless. This made monitoring possible via computer, tablet PC and mobile phone, making constant tracking possible regardless of location.

The flight was part of the robot delivery project funded by Incheon Metropolitan City and Incheon Technopark and viewed by representatives from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure & Transport, Incheon Metropolitan City, Incheon Technopark, Incheon Port Authority, Korea Institute of Aviation Safety Technology, Incheon Industry Academy Collaboration Institute, and Jeyang Logistics.

In November 2019, a Pablo Air drone completed a 57km flight from Jejudo’s Seogwipo Port to Udo Port in one hour and 56 minutes, the longest drone delivery flight in Korea at the time. The company is helping develop an urban air mobility personal air vehicle market by engaging in non-delivery projects, such as an art show by a group of 300 drones.

“Drone technology will create significant added value in the future of delivery shipping and bring greater convenience for users,” said Kim Young-jun, CEO of Pablo Air. “The era of drone-shipped deliveries is fast approaching, which means we have to concentrate not only on developing safer, more precise technologies but also on entering foreign markets in 2021, using our unparalleled skill set. We will be collaborating with a variety of distribution companies worldwide in the coming years.”

Founded in 2018, Pablo Air develops unmanned aerial software and hardware. Its core business is the development of drone swarm platforms and provision of related technology. Every employee has expertise in drones and/or unmanned aviation. The company is developing technologies to make drones applicable on a wide scale, including in distribution, disaster detection, collection of environmental data and entertainment.

The company secured KRW3bn in series A funding in collaboration with Lee Soo-man, chief producer of SM Entertainment, and the KTB Network. It has completed the development of its own drone hardware and is working on software that integrates manned and unmanned drones. It is also pursuing projects in areas such as drone swarm technology-based logistics, disaster monitoring and smart city environment monitoring. Its vision is to develop benchmark technology and set a new milestone in the personal air vehicle air taxi industry.