Efforts to alleviate labor shortages with robots

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Demonstration experiment of delivery by drones centered around Makuhari New City, Chiba City
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Chiba City, which has been selected as a National Strategic Special Zone, has relaxed aviation law regulations and is conducting demonstration experiments on various delivery services using drones.

Demonstrations using drones and smartphone engineer database apps were carried out in April and November 2016. Three demonstrations were successful: transporting goods (720ml bottles of wine) from AEON Mall Makuhari New City, transporting over-the-counter medicines by vertical flight from Utase 3-chome Park to a high-rise apartment building, and delivering mobile batteries and books using a special shopping app.

Based on the results of the demonstration experiment, Chiba City hopes to realize drone delivery in 2019. Although there are many issues to be addressed, such as the safety of surrounding residents, noise issues, and legal frameworks for flight routes, we can look forward to the realization of a new delivery service that takes advantage of the location of Makuhari New City, which has many logistics warehouses in the surrounding waterfront area.



Recently, various issues have become apparent, such as long working hours for delivery drivers due to same-day delivery and redelivery when customers are absent, and labor shortages in the retail and food service industries. However, as new technologies are developed and tested, it may not be so far off before people's lives become more convenient and enriched.