Drones… with their feet on the ground
In recent years, the word “drone” has gone from being used solely as unmanned military aircraft to potentially taking on the role in the logistics industry, delivering our latest internet purchase. Amazon’s announcement on December 1, 2013 of Amazon Prime Air was the first step in this direction, at the same time as the falling cost of drones made them a popular Christmas gift, causing the authorities headaches.
But what if the future of logistics was not about aircraft but instead delivery robots such as the one in the picture, created by Starship Technologies, set up by two of the founders of Skype, Janus Friis and Ahti Heinla, able to carry up to 18 kilograms in a secure receptacle and equipped with nine cameras, bidirectional audio and GPS.
The idea is to carry out deliveries from local shops in five minute-to half-hour windows, allowing customers to choose when they want the delivery check the distance and estimated arrival time and then monitor the robot’s progress through an app that says when the delivery has arrived. All that is then required is to open the receptacle with a PIN number and collect the purchase. The idea is for 24/7 service with a cost of less than one dollar per order, which is between $5 and $15 cheaper than a person in neighborhoods previously mapped in high resolution, identifying intersections and possible obstacles, and navigating through radar and cameras, and thus avoiding costly systems like LiDAR.
The robot has a speed of 6.5 km/h, and a delivery range of something like three kilometers, and comes with obstacle detection systems and can even interact with pedestrians around it via remote control from a logistics center, and even call out for help in the event of robbery. A 50-watt electric motor drives its six wheels, and the robot can be quickly and easily recharged when an algorithm detects its is running low on power.
The company, based in Estonia, which is fast becoming a tech hub, has been working on several prototypes that have racked up some 6,500 kilometers, meeting around 400,000 people along the way, most of whom don’t seem to have been particularly phased by it. After a first product announcement in November 2015, the company is hoping to put five robots on delivery trials under real conditions in Washington DC from September. For the moment, it is not expected to operate in city centers, but in less-busy residential neighborhoods.
Will these kinds of robots become a part of normal daily life? Will they turn out to be cheaper and more reliable than humans if they each have to be monitored by a human? And will they be subject to hijackings, robbery and theft, their parts stripped and sold?
(En español, aquí)
