South Korea’s Korea AeroSpace Administration (KASA) is conducting a major real-world autonomous logistics trial in Jinju Innovation City that combines heavy-lift drones with autonomous ground-delivery robots. The drones can carry payloads of up to 40 kg, cross the Nam River and transfer packages to autonomous robots that navigate sidewalks, crosswalks and apartment complexes to complete last-mile delivery.
The government-backed program has approximately ₩14.9 billion ($11.2 million) in funding and plans more than 300 tests across six sites using seven drones and seven autonomous ground vehicles.
Why it matters: This is a particularly important smart-city autonomy development because the aviation and ground systems are being treated as one multimodal autonomous transportation network rather than independent technologies.
Investor angle: Companies controlling the software interfaces between drones, robots, charging infrastructure and urban traffic systems could capture meaningful value as cities scale autonomous logistics.
