We should expect that land-based mobile robots (as well as surface robots) will increasingly be used in the delivery segment, both long-distance and last-mile delivery. They will have to compete with delivery by flying drones.
In 2016, several companies are testing street delivery robots. As of 2016, commercial use of street delivery robots has begun. One of the challenges for the creators of such robots is to develop an algorithm that allows the robot to find its way in the flow of people, but so that there is no risk of collision with them, at least through the fault of the robot.
It is hard to underestimate the effectiveness of using ground robot couriers. This is expected to reduce the cost of delivery compared to human couriers, which means that the cost of service delivery will decrease, which will provide an additional incentive for the introduction of such devices. Last but not least, goods will be delivered to the customer faster! The losers will be the people who worked as couriers – their demand will decrease in the coming years. Well, this lies in the general trend of decreasing need for low-skilled labor due to mass automation. Governments will have to take care of this problem, for example, by introducing guaranteed payments to the population.
Before delivery by flying drones, robotic ground delivery has the distinct advantage that neither the shipment nor the courier will fall on your head even if “something goes wrong”. Of course, it’s important to see how this robot will be perceived in the human community – theft and vandalism are still a thing of the past. Will attacks on robots become too frequent? Will customers be ready to deal with such a “robocarrier”? Most likely, the problems will be solvable, and autonomous robotic ground delivery systems will soon become widespread. At least in areas where civilized and sensible people live.
Some countries have begun to modify legislation to make it legal to use street delivery robots, such as Estonia.
Cities have emerged where robots are not welcome and have introduced appropriate bans on their use.
Robots adapt to the urban infrastructure. For example, when driving on the sidewalk they accelerate no faster than 5-6 km / h, and when driving on a bicycle lane can increase the speed to 12-14 km / h. At the same time, they mostly “imitate” a pedestrian – crossing roads on “zebra”, moving on sidewalks and bicycle lanes, but not on the streets, in the general flow with cars. At some point, robot couriers may also appear, representing an autonomous car rather than a “pedestrian” cart.