Californian startup testing delivery of four-wheel robots
While some companies want to deliver goods by air, others use unmanned ground vehicles for this. Californian startup Dispatch is already testing autonomous four-wheeled vehicles on students and has raised $ 2 million in seed investments.
The three founders of the startup Dispatch have previously worked on artificial intelligence. Before creating the prototype, one of the founders conducted a survey among other start-ups and small stores about the possible use of unmanned couriers and received a positive response. After that, the team joined the accelerator in China and started working with a prototype, which at the first stage looked like a wheelchair with a refrigerator.
Soon the startup worked with the design and made “Carry”. Now two such four-wheeled courier robots deliver goods on the campuses of Menlo College and California State University in Monterey Bay. The device independently chooses a route, goes with the speed of a pedestrian and uses cameras and a lidar to avoid obstacles. With each trip, the robot becomes smarter.
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Each courier robot has four separate containers for packages with a total mass of not more than 45 kilograms. A student on campus receives a notification on the smartphone that the courier is on the way, and a special code to open the box.
College campuses were ideal sites for testing robots. On the one hand, these are relatively closed areas, on the other - there are many pedestrians, cyclists and skateboarders. But you need to expand the capabilities of the robot, and the developers plan to create couriers with a special design, depending on the environment. That is, the version for the city may look very different.
Dispatch is also thinking of joining forces between courier robots and unmanned vehicles. In the future, they may become part of the delivery infrastructure. The startup has already received $ 2 million investment.
The idea of ​​delivery using such robots is not new. In 2015, the co-founders of Skype developed a robot courier traveling on the sidewalks . These robots travel at a speed of 6.5 km / h and are capable of bringing two packages with a total weight of about 9 kg to the addressee. The cost of delivery is 10 times lower than any other last-mile courier service. These robots are 99% autonomous, the remaining 1% is the operator who monitors the robot and can take control at any time.
The three founders of the startup Dispatch have previously worked on artificial intelligence. Before creating the prototype, one of the founders conducted a survey among other start-ups and small stores about the possible use of unmanned couriers and received a positive response. After that, the team joined the accelerator in China and started working with a prototype, which at the first stage looked like a wheelchair with a refrigerator.
Soon the startup worked with the design and made “Carry”. Now two such four-wheeled courier robots deliver goods on the campuses of Menlo College and California State University in Monterey Bay. The device independently chooses a route, goes with the speed of a pedestrian and uses cameras and a lidar to avoid obstacles. With each trip, the robot becomes smarter.
')
Each courier robot has four separate containers for packages with a total mass of not more than 45 kilograms. A student on campus receives a notification on the smartphone that the courier is on the way, and a special code to open the box.
College campuses were ideal sites for testing robots. On the one hand, these are relatively closed areas, on the other - there are many pedestrians, cyclists and skateboarders. But you need to expand the capabilities of the robot, and the developers plan to create couriers with a special design, depending on the environment. That is, the version for the city may look very different.
Dispatch is also thinking of joining forces between courier robots and unmanned vehicles. In the future, they may become part of the delivery infrastructure. The startup has already received $ 2 million investment.
The idea of ​​delivery using such robots is not new. In 2015, the co-founders of Skype developed a robot courier traveling on the sidewalks . These robots travel at a speed of 6.5 km / h and are capable of bringing two packages with a total weight of about 9 kg to the addressee. The cost of delivery is 10 times lower than any other last-mile courier service. These robots are 99% autonomous, the remaining 1% is the operator who monitors the robot and can take control at any time.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/393145/
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