Every day more and more commerce moves from the physical world i.e. a shop, to the online world. In the old world model we carried our packages home. In this new world model we need a delivery service to get the package to where we want to receive it. This change has driven an astronomical increase in delivery services.
Today delivery services are mostly some guy in a van or car driving badly, parking illegally and dumping stuff wherever they think is good enough. Alternatively it is a bike rider, risking life and limb in ever increasing volumes of less patient traffic. In each case there is a human doing the delivery.
This situation won’t last too much longer. There are a huge range of companies developing alternate delivery systems that use some sort of robotic delivery mechanism. Robot delivery is cheaper, safer and most likely, more reliable.
Pepsi is developing small self driven snackbots to deliver a variety of snacks to University students at the University of the Pacific campus in California. Students place an order online and it is delivered anywhere within the 175 acre campus. The perfect way to stop students from actually moving during their degrees.
Domino’s is trialing robotic pizza delivery in New Zealand. Called DRU (Domino's Robotic Unit), the four-wheel robot was developed in Australia and is capable of completing deliveries within a 20-mile radius on a single charge. DRU stands at just under three-feet tall, and uses an array of sensors to avoid obstacles. Up to 10 pizzas can be stored in the bot's heated compartment, which can be unlocked with a code that customers are given when they order.
Bipedal robots (two legged) are a greater challenge for engineers as they need to balance as well as move over varied terrain. Agility Robotics (from Oregon University) has developed a prototype “Cassie” that is able to demonstrate human like gait and movement. Cassie uses a 3 degrees of freedom hip joint and powered ankles that allow it to stand still (as opposed to continually moving to maintain balance).
Building on these capabilities Agility partnered with Ford to develop “Digit”. Still a prototype, Digit can deliver a 20 kilo parcel to the door from an autonomous delivery vehicle.
Taking this concept one step further Continental is developing robot dogs that will jump out of the self drive delivery vehicle,
knock on your door and hand you, your parcel.
In the near future the delivery vehicles will be autonomous, the last mile to the door will be handled by a dog like or humanoid robot, but what if you aren’t home? There are a range of solutions being developed.
Porsche has developed a blockchain based security system whereby a delivery person (in the future delivery robot) delivers a package to your car and when the delivery arrives, the car automatically opens the boot and the package is left in the boot.
There are a lot of startups that are working on a secure home postbox to receive parcels whist you are out. Where will these postboxes go? With the rise of self drive cars, less and less of us will require a garage. There will be plenty of space.
Amazon, of course, is looking at doing things differently. They have patented an aircraft carrier sized, airship which will hover above cities and use drones to deliver parcels to your house.
Whichever delivery system it is that prevails in the future, it won’t be long till we can receive anything we can buy, without needing to interact with a human.
Paying it Forward
If you have a start-up or know of a start-up that has a product ready for market please let me know. I would be happy to have a look and give the start-up a shout out to my readers if it is something that I think they could use. If you have any questions or comments please email me via my website craigcarlyon.com
Till next week.