Drone Delivers Mail in Singapore

As reported from Singapore - drone delivers mail!

The future is here! SingPost uses a drone to deliver mail to Pulau Ubin

Move over carrier pigeons. 

SingPost delivered the mail to Pulau Ubin [ an off shore island near Changi airport] using a drone, The Straits Times has reported. SingPost had help from the IDA to create this drone, and sent over a T-shirt and a letter from Lorong Halus to Pulau Ubin. 

This trial run took five minutes and covered about 2km. 

The Drones are Coming - VERY Rapidly

Drones have been a major success in military areas in recent years.  And this success is now rapidly translating into commercial areas.

I wrote a blog some months ago on this topic and even in this brief period, a lot has been happening.

In Australia, regulations are developing although slowly, but aim to minimise rules for low power short range drones, often small quadricopters.  While of some commercial interest, it is larger units that are increasingly of interest commercially, and the area where they potentially pose some airspace problems.

Areas of use include mining and agriculture / pastoral use, ecological studies and remote sensing for R and D purposes, real estate photography......use your imagination!  And of course commercial spying, and related issue including police and related agencies use for traffic monitoring in real time anywhere, survelliance activities, and no doubt customs and border patrols.

Last week the ABC produced another informative article and tv segment on the issue.

Be aware........it could be coming to get you.

Read more here -

 http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-03-01/drones-set-for-large-scale-commercial-take-off/4546556 

They Are NOW for Real - Will YOUR Farm Have a Drone or UAV?

I wrote a blog back in 2008 [http://abovecapricorn.blogspot.com.au/search/label/unmanned%20aircraft] about the serious potential for using a drone [or unmanned aerial vehicle - UAV] in the rural sector.

I see tremendous potential for both smaller and larger rural properties to be able to deploy these types of vehicles to monitor fences, animal herds, watering points, irrigation canals, monitoring of feral animals eg camels........the potential uses are really only up to the imagination.

The link to the article on the ABC web site provides some real world uses right here in Australia, right now, in 2012.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-02-21/drone-journalism-takes-off/3840616?WT.svl=news4

And the cost is now approaching or may have decreased already for some operators that the concept is worth testing on their own properties.

A number of Australian companies already have commercially used equipment - real estate, mining and so on. See - http://www.cybertechuav.com.au/ as an example, but there are others. Equipment costs are around the same as a small car, and up in proce for more sophisticated equipment, although these costs are falling as the technology develops.

There are even high school competitions in Australia for UAVs, and have been now for some years!!

In the UK, some commercial farms are aleady using these UAVs to assist with management of precision agriculture and aerial inspections of crop performances, developing maps of individual paddocks during the growing season and combining the data with yield monitoring [for example header yield monitoring] to assist with economic performance improvement.

What ideas and role is seen for their use in the NT pastoral and rural scene?

UPDATE - 24 February

CSIRO are using a drone to complete a project on marine rubbish on beaches around Australia. Reported in the news today.

http://www.news.com.au/technology/eye-in-sky-filming-our-rubbish-shame/story-e6frfro0-1226280052411