Nippon Express begins demonstration testing of drone use inside warehouses
Press Release
Nippon Express begins demonstration testing of drone use inside warehouses
A world first!*1 Semi-autonomous drone in a non-GPS environment reads Chameleon Code*2
Nippon Express Co., Ltd. (Mitsuru Saito, President) teamed up with Canon Marketing Japan Inc. (Masahiro Sakata, President) and Prodrone Co., Ltd. (Masakazu Kono, President) to conduct a test on the utilization of drones for warehouse inventory control and logistics facility security in Nippon Express' Tokyo C-NEX Warehouse on Thursday, August 24.
Drone flying semi-autonomously, detecting its position relative to the floor and to cargo by laser on a test course featuring pallets made up to look like cargo
While maintaining a set distance from odd-shaped cargo, drones identify Chameleon Codes with an onboard reader
Aims
This demonstration test used the latest model of drone to verify the current level of technology and to identify issues to be addressed in practically applying this technology, with the intent of studying the utilization of drones for logistics-related operations in non-GPS environments such as warehouses and distribution facilities.
Description of test
Semi-autonomous flight test using a set designed to resemble a warehouse (to verify certain semi-autonomous flight functions for maintaining pre-determined altitude and distance from cargo)
In-flight Chameleon Code reading test
Video recording test envisioning security operations using ultrasensitive multi-purpose cameras
Results
The test confirmed that the drone could fly semi-autonomously while maintaining a pre-determined altitude and distance from cargo in a non-GPS environment
The test confirmed that some Chameleon Codes could be read by a camera mounted on a flying drone
The test confirmed that the drone could use ultrasensitive multi-purpose cameras to detect target objects inside a dimly-lit logistics facility
Future issues
Achieving fully-autonomous flight whereby the drone can also move backward and forward autonomously
Developing camera and drone technology to improve precision in reading Chameleon Codes, etc.
Basic information on drone used in flight test
Distance between motor shafts: 1,058mm
Drone weight: 4.6kg (including battery)
Payload: 3.5kg
Nippon Express will continue cooperating with relevant parties in logistics engineering R&D to leverage drones' flight capabilities in putting drones to use in other scenarios that make use of their abilities to carry, see, search, examine and monitor.
A world-first test of a drone in semi-autonomous flight within a warehouse reading Chameleon Codes from close distances
Chameleon Code: a color bar code that enables precise high-speed recognition of multiple color codes using cyan, magenta, yellow and black
