DRONES AND BOTS: THE FUTURE OF DELIVERY
With the increase in the e-commerce business, the need for last-mile logistics has become more common nowadays. Along with delivering commercial goods to customers, there comes the need for manpower and means of transportation required for the door-to-door delivery services. But this practice has become increasingly expensive and a key source of pollution.
As a result, many suppliers in the transport and logistics industry are developing innovative technologies in three key areas:
- Delivery robots: These are small robots with cameras embedded to them offering a 360-degree view, designed in order to avoid the obstacles that come in the way. The small food delivery robots can only hold 22 lbs. of food. The service robots scan both ways before crossing a street and should be able to avoid collisions with vehicles and people.
- Robotic delivery vehicles (RDVs): These are autonomous vans that use lidars, cameras, and deep learning algorithms in order to drive themselves, carrying up to 1,000 kilograms on the cargo compartment.
- Delivery Drones: A delivery drone is a type of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) used for distributing packages to consumers during the last mile delivery process. They have rechargeable batteries and 4–8 propellers. They can be operated either autonomously using AI technology or remotely, with distribution centres and operators overseeing the flight.
The need for a drone-based delivery system
The technologies mentioned above provide a possibility of resolving the issue of high cost and environmental impact of last-mile logistics (LML). They can reduce carbon emission, road congestions, and operational costs while satisfying customer requirements for on-demand and door-step delivery. Even during the current pandemic situation, drones act as an effective means of transportation for medicines and testing-kits to places that are generally inaccessible by motor-vehicles.
Are drones and bots the future of delivery?
Drones and bots deliver products quickly to any location which is inaccessible by vehicles. They reduce the cost of average home-delivery services and also eliminate the possibility of human errors such as negligence, willful act, wrong recipients, etc.
Significantly reducing the last-mile waiting times from 2–3 days to as little as 2–3 minutes also gains positive feedback from the customers. Highly accurate GPS helps in an easy and smart way of delivering products. Customers would be able to know the exact time at which the product would be delivered. Additional issues such as road congestion and environmental pollution can also be taken care of.
How do they work?
There are two ways in which the whole process works for drones. First is either to establish multiple dispatch centres located around the city in order to reduce battery power consumption and travelling time or to use traditional delivery trucks that will operate as the dispatch centre for all the drone delivery operations (preferable in rural areas).
For delivery drones to fly independently, beyond visible line-of-sight technology is needed. Guided by GPS navigation systems and motion sensor cameras, drones will be able to deliver packages to the customer’s location without hitting with another drone, tree or bird.
At Amazon’s Re: MARS conference, Amazon’s consumer worldwide CEO Jeff Wilke had said that their drone uses a combination of thermal cameras, depth cameras, and sonar to detect hazards. With the help of machine learning models, onboard computers automatically could identify obstacles. The drone has six degrees of freedom (compared to four for a normal quadcopter), which Amazon says allows for more dynamic and nimble flight.
The bot delivery system is similar to that of a drone. The bot is sent to the receiver through a notification received from an app/software. The package is then kept inside the bot and is then delivered to the customer. The cool thing is that it would open only by the code or message received by the customer.
Generally, package delivering bots have 6 wheels and motion-sensing cameras around it to give it a 360-degree view in order to avoid being hit by a pedestrian, animal or any other obstacle.
Bots and drones- displacing truck-based delivery systems?
Through the success of startups like Kiwi Campus and Starship Technologies, delivery bots have completed hundreds of thousands of deliveries globally. As these startups expand operations, and major companies such as FedEx and Amazon further develop their programs, sidewalk bot deliveries are likely to grow into the millions over the next 3 to 5 years.
As more companies are granted legal status to operate RDVs on public roads without a driver, expect these vehicles to have strong long-term applicability to urban use cases, displacing hundreds of thousands, or more likely, millions of deliveries in city centres over the next decade. With 85% of Amazon’s packages weighing less than 5 pounds (and thus potentially applicable to drone delivery), the biggest displacement of truck deliveries will likely be from drones. Navigant Research estimates that 426 million packages will be delivered globally by drone, including 92 million packages in North America, by 2030.
Setbacks of using bots and drones
They’re very expensive and require significant investment to create a network of drones and bots, especially for small startups and local grocery stores. There is always a higher risk of failure and malfunction during delivery operations when compared to traditional options. The primary function of these autonomous delivery systems is to “complete the local deliveries in between 5 and 30 minutes from a designated hub or retail outlet” and not to complete the whole delivery.
For example, just delivering the parts of any electronic item is not enough unless it has been assembled and is ready for use. There are places that even drones and bots can’t reach. For example, the flats inside multi-storeyed buildings are inaccessible due to less space for movement.
Challenges — Public opinion
Some people prefer drones over bots from the viewpoint of people intervention. Operating bots on a sidewalk are not feasible with heavy crowds of people or other roadblocks. Driving on the roads would be even more of a disaster. It would be more of a major traffic problem if bots run down the streets at 45 miles an hour.
There are also some drone specific problems like what if the customer is not at home at the time of delivery and the drone just leaves the package at the front door. There is always a chance of robbery/theft at that point. What if the weather conditions are not suitable as in rainy or snowy days where the package could get damaged or the drone just malfunctions? It also carries only up to 2 shopping bags, whereas the delivery truck can carry up to like 1000 packages.
Conclusion
Although many big companies such as Google, Amazon, Uber and startups such as Starship Technologies have started their successful bot and drone delivery services, there is still scope for software and security improvements. Many people still do not completely rely on these unmanned vehicles for delivery services. Even though drones and robots have a GPS navigation system and cameras for security, people would still find ways to disrupt their route by blocking their paths and looking to snatch a package en route.
To position for success, Navigant Research recommends suppliers focus on addressing safety, consumer resistance, and privacy issues, in addition to finding creative solutions to extend the electric range of delivery bots and drones. Logistics companies should aggressively develop bot and drone programs to remain competitive, and governments should establish regulatory frameworks that support the growth of the bot and drone industries. As we know “Rome wasn’t built in a day”. The unmanned autonomous delivery industry still has a long way to go.
