Toyota Group Tests Level 4 Drone Deliveries to Remote Japanese Islands

Sora-iina and Toyota Tsusho Demonstrate Fully Autonomous Medication Flights to Support Aging Population on the Gotō Islands

by DRONELIFE Staff Writer Ian J. McNabb

This article published in collaboration with JUIDA, the Japan UAS Industrial Development Association.

Toyota Tsusho Corporation, a member of the Toyota Group, alongside drone logistics subsidiary Sora–iina Co., recently announced that they had successfully completed a demonstration experiment, testing Level 4 flight capabilities to deliver medications to the remote Gotō Islands. While Toyota Tsusho and Sora-iina have been distributing prescription medicines and other supplies to the remote islands using drones since 2022, these flights were considered Level 3 (BVLOS over uninhabited areas) and conducted using fixed wing drones, requiring patients to pick up their medications at a drone port.

Level 4 flight would allow for home delivery, greatly reducing the difficulty in planning flights and ensuring quick service to the often elderly patients, who might struggle to travel to a pickup point. Right now, a mobile clinic goes from home to home, prescribing medication which must then be hand-delivered the next day by couriers due to regulation. Toyota Tsusho and Sora-iina used drones to take medications directly from the pharmacy to the mobile clinic, allowing patients access to medications immediately with minimal human interaction.

The flights, which were conducted in collaboration with the government of Nagasaki Prefecture, Tamanoura Clinic, and Nagasaki University, utilized the ACSL PF2-CAT3, Japan’s first drone authorized for fully autonomous Level 4 BVLOS operation. The system has been used for a wide variety of medical delivery tests across Japan, including a delivery project last year that attempted to bridge the difficult problem of timely deliveries through Tokyo’s intense traffic. The compact PF2, designed for short trips, features a weight limit of 1.5 kg and a 15 minute maximum flight time.

In future, Toyota Tsusho and Sora-iina hope to gain approval to make this demonstration a regular flight, making it easier for the elderly residents of the Goto islands to get the medications they need. In the meantime, tests will continue to demonstrate the potential of drones to assist Japan’s aging population and support their medical industry.

More information, including the original press release, is available here (in Japanese).

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