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 The as yet unnamed robots are small, safe, practical and free from
CO2 emissions, according to the developers. "When you place your
order online, as you do right now, but instead of getting the
delivery by somebody coming up to your door and knocking on your
door, you would get it by a robot," said Ahti Heinla, a Skype
co-founder and CEO at Starship Technologies. The robots can carry
the equivalent of two bags of shopping and complete local deliveries
in between five and 30 minutes from a designated hub or retail
outlet. Heinla explained that the robots are not designed for
long-distance orders, but for completing the final mile of a
delivery. He said this puts the customer in control of their
deliveries by allowing them to choose from a selection of short,
precise delivery slots.
"When you as a consumer, when you find it convenient for you, you
call up the delivery using your smartphone. And then the robot gets
loaded with your parcel in our hub and it drives to your doorstep.
And that takes about 20 minutes. So instead of having a delivery
window of half a day or something that you're getting your delivery
sometime during today; you can pick a delivery window that is like
ten minutes," said Heinla. When a package is out for delivery with a
robot, the customer can track it in real time on their smartphone.
When it arrives at the delivery address, the customer uses their
smartphone to unlock the secure compartment to access their goods.
In Greenwich, London, close to where the pilot schemes will take
place, the 'droid drew a few puzzled looks but also a largely
positive response from passers-by. "I'm very impressed. It's small,
it looks safe, looks futuristic. Very clever idea, I think," said
Jake. "I think it's the thing of the future. In decades to come
you're going to see these sorts of things buzzing around the streets
or up in the air. It's the start of the way ahead, I think," said
shopper Pete, who added the robots could save his bacon over the
festive period: "For someone like me who leaves Christmas shopping
until the last minute it would certainly be handy for getting it
next day."
Starship's technology uses 'off the shelf' components, with the
robots lightweight and low-cost enabling the company to bring the
current cost of delivery down by 10-15 times per shipment. Each
delivery robot will be fitted with navigation and obstacle avoidance
software, with the company saying the robots will drive autonomously
99 percent of the time. But they are also overseen by human
operators who can step in to ensure safety at all times. Any concern
about theft of the robot's cargo can be allayed by the in-built
security features that Heinla said makes the potential reward for a
would-be robber not worth the risk. "While you might think that some
people would want to steal something from the robot, it's actually
much harder than you would think. First, the parcel compartment is
obviously locked. So it's not easy to break into the robot,
especially if you don't have any special tools to do it. And most
hooligans on the street, they don't have special tools.
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Secondly, the robot has nine cameras and it's constantly connected
to the internet. It has GPS. There is an operator that can actually
talk to people around the robot, there is a loudspeaker and
microphone in the robot. So it's not that easy actually," explained
Heinla. Automated delivery services are being developed by a number
of companies, including Google and Wal-Mart. Online retailer Amazon,
whose unmanned aerial drones are looking to take flight in the near
future, recently launched a video showing a prototype of their
technology. Starship Technologies, however, say there are huge
"social acceptance" problems with autonomous airborne drones;
something their earthbound robots won't have.
"It's safer than a flying drone. People actually do not like low
flying drones, especially when they are flying over their backyard
and it's a buzzing, flying machine. If it's doing a delivery for you
maybe it's okay, but of it's doing a delivery for somebody else, you
know, people don't like that. People don't like other machines
flying over their backyard where their children are playing. So
there's huge social acceptance problems with the robots, with the
robots that are flying. But not so much for the robots that are
land-based, and safe, and look cute," said Heinla. Starship
Technologies will launch real-life trials of the robots in London
and a couple of U.S. cities in Spring 2016.
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