Daejeon, South Korea – Daejeon is solidifying its position as a leading city in drone innovation, having been selected for the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport's 2025 Drone Demonstration City Project. Daejeon is the only city in South Korea to be chosen in both the K-Drone delivery commercialization and advanced drone administrative service categories.
The Drone Demonstration City Project aims to stimulate the drone industry and foster future new industries by discovering and supporting various drone utilization service models. This selection grants Daejeon 700 million KRW in national funds, which will be used to actively promote medical supply delivery via drone and 3D-based smart traffic control demonstrations.
Daejeon plans to transform emergency blood and medical supply delivery through the establishment of a joint civilian, government, and military medical system based on unmanned aerial vehicles. Additionally, they aim to create core infrastructure for the autonomous driving era with broadband 3D model-based smart traffic control.
The existing emergency medical supply delivery system faces limitations in rapid response due to traffic congestion and emergency situations. To address these issues, Daejeon is implementing a "joint civilian, government, and military medical system based on unmanned aerial vehicles" project, which will demonstrate a real-time medical supply delivery system using drones.
In collaboration with the Armed Forces Daejeon Hospital (Director Lee Guk-jong) and Taekyung Electronics Co., Ltd. (CEO Ahn Hye-ri), the city will conduct medical drone delivery demonstrations in downtown Daejeon for approximately 10 months. Utilizing drones will enable the rapid delivery of blood, specimens, and emergency medications, significantly enhancing emergency response capabilities.
This demonstration project, a first-of-its-kind medical drone project involving collaboration between the military, medical institutions, and private companies, is expected to contribute to national medical system innovation, including disaster response and remote medical care expansion.
Daejeon is also pursuing traffic control innovation using drones. With the participation of Systech Co., Ltd. (CEO Park Seong-jin), a precise 3D model of major road sections from KAIST to Banseok Station will be constructed.
While existing 2D-based traffic control systems struggle to provide precise responses to real-time traffic changes, broadband 3D model-based systems can predict and optimize traffic flow in real time, making them essential for building future autonomous driving road environments.
Daejeon plans to integrate this project with its ongoing "Autonomous Driving Commercialization Zone Development Project" to develop a smart traffic control system that advances 2D-based traffic data.
Son Cheol-woong, Director of Daejeon's Future Strategy Industry Office, emphasized, "This project is the first nationwide case to practically apply drones to urban medical systems and autonomous driving-based traffic administration." He added, "This will be an opportunity for Daejeon to leap forward as a city that leads future mobility innovation using drones."
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