FedEx Reveals Its Autonomous Delivery Robot

Following the trend of making autonomous delivery robots, FedEx is testing its robot for short-distance deliveries. Today, the company has officially made an announcement on its FedEx SameDay Bot which is said to offer “last mile” deliveries with more efficiency.

The SameDay Bot uses power from batteries and has a maximum speed of 10mph. It is completely autonomous. With LIDAR sensors, also used in regular cameras and self-driving cars, the bot can maneuver around traffic and pedestrians.

FedEx say for the meantime, the bot will be used to carry packages around different offices in the company’s headquarters in Memphis, but it still needs to wait for the local government’s approval. If these trials turn out successful, the company wants to offer the service to other organizations and retailers. Eventually, robots will become a standard and essential part of FedEx’s same-day delivery service.

According to the company, it is in discussion with several firms including Walmart, Walgreens, Target, Pizza Hut, Lowe’s, and AutoZone to understand their need for this kind of delivery robot. FedEx says that on average, over 60% of these retailers’ customers live three miles from a store, which is a perfect distance for this little robot.

FedEx is not the only company testing out with short-range delivery robots. A lot of large firms and startups have also been experimenting with this technology. However, it is not clear whether bots will be an economical choice to deploy or they can be safely integrated into the cities. San Francisco was one of the early testing locations for these robots, but their movements were later restricted by the municipal legislators, stating they were becoming a nuisance. Idaho them became the second state to try this.

There are some features of SameDay Bot that can make it stand out from other ones. Engineer Dean Kamer, who created the wheelchair that can climb the stair upright called iBot and Segway, took part in its development. You can see Kamen’s trademark in the robot of FedEx, with multiple wheels for curb and step climbing.

From its video commercial, it can be seen that the bot also has screens both on the front and back so that it can communicate with pedestrians. The front screen says “hello” while the back screen signals its direction and if it’s going to stop.

This same technology has been experimented by autonomous car makers, claiming that it helps lower the chance of misunderstanding and accidents happening between machine and human.