Robots Starship Technologies for the delivery of products. Photo: Starship TechnologiesThe British Estonian robotics company
Starship Technologies , created by the founders of Skype,
has been testing autonomous robots for the delivery of goods for
several years . These cute creatures are already familiar to residents of many large cities. Although some irresponsible citizens
show aggression towards them , in general, robots have proven their effectiveness: customers are satisfied, the quality of services is high.
During testing as part of joint projects with several companies for the delivery of products, Starship Technologies robots have traveled more than 150,000 kilometers to the USA, Estonia, Great Britain and Germany. So now it's time to expand the experiment.
The company
announced it is embarking on the first large-scale project of an autonomous delivery service. Starship Technologies plans to launch a food delivery service for corporate campuses in Europe and the USA.
The technology is already run-in on the Intuit campus in Mountain View, California. This campus covers an area of 17,400 m². Employees ordered breakfasts and dinners, and also used robots to transport office supplies and products to other places on campus. Service all loved. On average, the delivery time of food, coffee or snacks was about 17 minutes. Employees do not need to go far from the workplace, go to the cafeteria or snack bar, if during work they wanted to eat. As a result, work becomes more productive, and during breaks, employees enjoy free time, and do not stand in line.
“You can sit outdoors during your break and use the app to take your food or drink to exactly where you are and not just to the building where the workplace is located,”
says Ahti Heinla, one of executive directors of Starship Technologies. “We offer people the convenience and the ability to regain control of their time.”
It turned out that the service is the most popular during breakfast: “When people come to work, they do not want to immediately stand in line for breakfast, but want to start work. So this is a great opportunity for robots to deliver breakfast. ”
Starship Technologies robots move around the area at pedestrian speeds, that is, no more than 6 km / h. The speed is specifically limited. Thus, they do not interfere with the movement of people on the sidewalks, and the goods are delivered at the same speed with which the foot courier delivers it.
Each robot is a lockable container. The container can be opened only from the mobile phone from which the order was placed through the corresponding
application .
Starship Technologies mobile application for ordering foodSix-wheeled robots are equipped with a security system, including nine video cameras for taking pictures and the subsequent punishment of a vandal or a hooligan who will try to take someone else’s food or attack the robot. In addition, the package includes a GPS system, a radar and ultrasonic sensors. An important part of the system is the capsules, where the robots call in after the work shift and where the batteries are automatically replaced.
Janus Friis, co-founder of the company and one of the executive directors is known for his previous startup Skype. He
says that absolute autonomy is 100% impossible to achieve. It is necessary to strive for autonomy at the level of 99% and ensure that in the case of a border operation the robot is always able to stop and the operator takes control.
In total, Starship Technologies hopes to commission more than 1,000 robots by the end of this year. It has not yet been announced with which companies or universities in Europe and the United States have entered into a cooperation agreement.
During the few years that Starship Technologies brought the technology of automatic delivery to mind, it had several competitors with their robots for cargo delivery, including start-ups
Marble ,
Robby ,
Nuro and
Dispatch .