Drone delivers Yoshinoya Co. gyudon dishes packed in a cardboard box in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture
Fast food chain operator Yoshinoya Co. and delivery service operator Demae-can Co. have tested a drone service that delivers “gyudon” beef-on-rice dishes.
In a flight demonstration for news media this month, staff at the iconic beef-bowl chain working out of a food truck near a park in the city cooked up enough mouth-watering gyudon dishes for four people.
Demae-can staff then put the dishes into a box that keeps them warm and loaded it onto a drone. It sped away and about 10 minutes later it arrived on the roof of a city-run hospital some five kilometers away.
The drone’s 5.2-kilometer course took it over Yokosuka’s adjacent bay and an empty high school athletic field, carrying its cargo from a mobile-kitchen Yoshinoya food truck to the roof of Yokosuka City Hospital.
While Yokosuka is a fairly developed city, the hospital is in a part of town with few nearby restaurants, and its cafeteria is operating at a reduced capacity during the pandemic. Delivery via drone, which took just 10 minutes, allowed medical staff who were craving Yoshinoya beef bowls to enjoy a hot, meaty meal with more freshly cooked flavor than what land-based delivery options allow.
The drone used in this test can deliver a package that weighs up to five kilograms, according to the company representatives.
The delivery was a joint effort between Yoshinoya, food delivery service Demae-can (whose smartphone ordering app hospital staff used to place their orders), drone design company Aeronext, and IT firm Access. While the companies didn’t mention the maximum payload of the drone, the video shows it transporting four beef bowls without any problems, not even minor spillage of their contents in flight.
The system could also be useful in Yoshinoya’s disaster relief efforts, if victims in areas inaccessible by roads need food.
Yoshinoya isn’t adding drone delivery to its permanent service options just yet, however, as this was primarily a concept/feasibility check for the idea itself. They showed that it can be done, though, and it looks like the days when beef bowls fly may come sooner than the days when pigs fly.
Photo: Makoto Tsuchiya
Source: Japan Today