The latest thing the e-commerce giant Amazon is testing is a small, autonomous six-wheel robot that is about the same size as a large cooler to get your stuff from its warehouse to you as quickly and as cheaply as possible. This nontraditional way of delivering parcels is powered by batteries and moves at a walking pace.
A big part of the development for the delivery robot has been done in simulations, like the way organisations have been training the neural networks that are being designed to power self-driving cars. Moving at a walking pace, each delivery device can navigate around pets, pedestrians, and other objects in its path.
Another delivery company is also in the development of a delivery robot and looks like a small refrigerator and has completed on-road tests in four cities overseas. Both companies present similar visions: A delivery van full of robots would arrive in a neighbourhood, and robots would travel the ‘last mile’ to customers doorsteps without human aid.
During a time when so many people rely on deliveries to get what they want, bringing these new delivery bots into the network increases deliver capacity.
We are interested to see where Amazon’s testing goes next, and whether it will allow the little delivery robot to start going out on its own without human supervision.