By Lucy Caulkett-
Amazon is set to create Robots that can deliver mail and drop off parcels inside homes, in what could be an alternative to human drivers.
Amazon has designed small, box-shaped droids capable of opening a door’s smartlock and making deliveries while in whilst the resident is at work, even in the middle of the night.
The innovative move by Amazon to get inside customers’ homes comes following the launch of Key. The recipient watches on a high-definition webcam as a “human agent” lets themselves in to drop off a parcel.
Amazon has published a European patent for “autonomous ground vehicles” [AGV] that retrieve parcels from delivery trucks, and drop them off either at the front door, or inside the home. Goods will be fished out of a compartment by a “robotic arm” before the device lets itself out.
FUNCTIONALITY
The design has a functionality and appearance to the tub-like cargo vehicles piloted for fast food deliveries in Greenwich by Starship Technologies. They are basically GPS-connected storage boxes on wheels. Amazon’s next-level invention similarly features imaging and proximity sensors and GPS to find the way, plus warning lights and mechanisms to “assist with open access barriers”, such as doors and gates.
The storage compartment can also be refrigerated for transporting groceries. Robots used will be owned by a group of neighbours or block of flats, where it could dock itself to charge in a lobby or garage and then roll out to collect from trucks as required, or it might be based in a customer’s hallway or utility room.