American delivery company FedEx has developed an autonomous robotic delivery device to help retailers distribute same-day orders to their customers.
Designed to satisfy the ever-growing expectations of consumers, the SameDay Bot allows retailers to accept orders from nearby customers and send them by robot directly to the buyer's home or office that same day.
After discovering that, on average, more than 60 per cent of vendors' customers live within three miles of a store location, FedEx saw the opportunity to create an on-demand, hyper-local delivery service.
The robot can travel on pavements and along roadsides to safely deliver small-scale shipments straight from a warehouse or store to the customers' door, the so-called last-mile.
"The FedEx SameDay Bot is an innovation designed to change the face of local delivery and help retailers efficiently address their customers' rising expectations," explained Brie Carere, executive vice president of FedEx.
"The bot represents a milestone in our ongoing mission to solve the complexities and expense of same-day, last-mile delivery for the growing e-commerce market in a manner that is safe and environmentally friendly."
Developed in collaboration with DEKA Research & Development Corporation, the SameDay Bot is equipped with "pedestrian-safe technology" that uses multiple cameras and LiDAR remote sensing technology to detect its surroundings.
Accompanied by machine-learning algorithms, these safe...