Latest news with #deliveryrobots
CTV News
5 days ago
- Business
- CTV News
Autonomous robots take to GTA sidewalks in food delivery pilot
John Vennavally-Rao has the story of a three-month pilot program in Markham, Ont. involving four robots delivering takeout to hungry customers. Autonomous delivery robots are rolling along sidewalks in Markham, Ont., turning heads and dropping off food as part of a new pilot project that could pave the way for expansion across the country. The three-month project involves four delivery bots equipped with insulated compartments that can carry nearly 60 kilograms of food. The bots are outfitted with a screen that displays friendly facial expressions, designed to navigate sidewalks and deliver meals within a two-kilometre radius of participating restaurants. 'Kids have no hesitation. They go up to the robot. We've seen kids hug the robot. They see it like a friendly community member,' said Sharif Virani, head of growth at Real Life Robotics. The Waterloo, Ont.-based company has partnered up with Skip, formerly known as Skip The Dishes, for the project. Isaac Muriuki reacted after watching a robot pass by on the sidewalk, 'I think they're cool to be honest, and I like to see technology progress like this.' And when it comes to sidewalk sharing? 'I mean, as long as there aren't like 50 of them blocking the sidewalk, then no problem,' said Muriuki. Food delivery robot pilot project Four delivery bots are now taking food from restaurants to customers in Markam, Ont. (CTV News) The robots operate daily between 11 a.m. and 9 p.m., rain or shine. Customers who live in the pilot area can now select robot delivery when placing orders from certain local restaurants on the Skip app. Virani says the initiative began with an initial test phase and marks a major step forward. 'It was the first municipally authorized public robot delivery trial in the history of Canada,' said Virani. A similar program by Tiny Mile was halted in Toronto when the city banned such robots from sidewalks four years ago. Some worry they can pose a hazard to those with vision challenges, as well as seniors and people with disabilities. Ottawa also imposed a ban in 2022. But Virani believes the robots are safe and framed the project in broader economic terms. 'In Canada right now, we have entrepreneurship at an all-time low, (the) death of the Main Street, and you're seeing the cost of operating a business at an all-time high,' he said. 'So we need innovation like this. We need to start taking some bold, ambitious moves if we want to look at recovering our Canadian economy.' Proponents say robotic delivery can reduce carbon emissions and avoid the traffic congestion that slows some traditional couriers. The robots can travel 5 km/h, which is slightly faster than a person walking. While the bots can operate independently, for now at least, a human guide is following them to make sure there are no problems. There's also a remote operator who can take control if needed. Real Life Robotics aims to deploy up to 500 delivery robots across Canadian cities within the next three years. Robot food delivery Skip pilot project Customer Soban Khan uses an app on his phone to open the robot's lid and retrieve his ordered lunch. (CTV News) CTV News watched as Soban Khan stood outside his workplace, waiting for his robot-delivered lunch. He used an app on his phone to unlock the lid and retrieve the food. 'Pretty awesome experience, pretty new experience for me. And seems like a great innovation,' said Khan, who added that he would use robot delivery again. The initiative drew largely positive responses from people CTV News approached on the street. 'I personally haven't talked to anybody with a negative reaction so far,' said Josephine Yang, who is working as a robot guide. Asked how pedestrians should react when they encounter a delivery bot, Yang says they should go on with their day, like how they normally walk. 'They can just treat the robot as another pedestrian,' he added. Ryan Liyanage, another passerby, raised broader questions about public interaction. 'Its ok for me I don't mind it. But I suppose others might,' said Liyanage. He wondered if people would try to abuse it or tip it over. 'That would be interesting to see how decent our society can get along with the robots, right?'
NHK
19-05-2025
- Business
- NHK
Seven-Eleven Japan starts robot delivery trial on roads
Seven-Eleven Japan says it has launched a trial using delivery robots on public roads. The convenience-store operator believes such a service could eventually help it deal with a worsening labor shortage. Two 7-Eleven stores in Tokyo's Hachioji area are taking part. Customers use an app to send their orders. Unmanned robots then head to the destinations. Sensors and other features detect road bumps and respond to traffic lights. The trial is reportedly the first by a major convenience-store operator in Japan in which robots run on public roads. Permission to do that was granted by the local police. The company hopes that in the future robots rather than humans can make more customer deliveries amid the shortage of workers. Seven-Eleven Japan Touhara Hikaru says, "In either urban or rural areas, we would like this service to be a means of reaching customers who have difficulty shopping." The company plans to call on nearby residents to participate. The firm plans to consider expanding the service to other areas after examining the results.
The Guardian
10-05-2025
- Automotive
- The Guardian
Australia has been hesitant – but could robots soon be delivering your pizza?
Robots zipping down footpaths may sound futuristic, but they are increasingly being put to work making deliveries around the world – though a legal minefield and cautious approach to new tech means they are largely absent in Australia. Retail and food businesses have been using robots for a variety of reasons, with hazard detection robots popping up in certain Woolworths stores and virtual waiters taking dishes from kitchens in understaffed restaurants to hungry diners in recent years. Overseas, in jurisdictions such as California, robots are far more visible in everyday life. Following on from the first wave of self-driving car trials in cities such as San Francisco, humans now also share footpaths with robots. Likened to lockers on wheels, companies including Serve Robotics and Coco have partnered with Uber Eats and Doordash, which have armies of robots travelling along footpaths in Los Angeles delivering takeaway meals and groceries. Delivery robots have also been delivering food for years in Europe, with cities in Sweden, Finland and the United Kingdom being among places where customers can use food delivery apps to order a robot to bring them their order. However, autonomous delivery robots are largely absent from the Australian market. One of the biggest hurdles standing in the way of the technology spreading in Australia is the legal status and safety concerns of delivery robots. When Australia Post trialled a robotic 'mobile parcel locker' in Brisbane in 2017, its usefulness was questioned due to the requirement it be escorted by a human at all times and could only carry one parcel at a time. Unlike food delivery by drone – a technology for which trials have been greenlit and has been serving airspace in parts of Melbourne and south-east Queensland for years – robots' status in law is unclear. Robots fall into a grey area in the already scattered and varied road and footpath laws of different states and councils across the country, said Christine Eldridge, a solicitor at Shine lawyers who works on cases related to motor vehicle accidents. Eldridge likened the regulatory status of delivery robots to that of e-scooters. A lack of provisions for how these new vehicles can be legally used, be it e-scooters, robots or other devices that don't meet the legal definition of a motor vehicle, means the technologies are largely banned by default in public except in a few council areas with trials in place. 'Legislation in respect of compensation claims and responsibility, for example, doesn't really contemplate robots. The laws don't keep pace with technology,' she said. 'It's a bit of a minefield' Eldridge said. Hussein Dia, a professor of future urban mobility at Swinburne University, agrees that current laws are unclear, something which makes companies hesitant to bring delivery robot technologies to Australia. 'There isn't anything in law to say they are allowed, but there's also nothing saying they're banned,' Dia said. The commonwealth government is formulating a legal and regulatory framework for autonomous vehicles more broadly, including for passenger-carrying self-driving cars, with laws expected in 2026. Dia is hopeful that authorities 'do a little bit more risk taking' in what they unveil, to help Australia catch up on progress overseas and to 'demystify' the technology for other road and footpath users. 'The evidence is they're quite safe.' Establishing zones where autonomous vehicles and robots can operate next to pedestrians and motorists requires detailed preparation – mapping streets, footpaths, and changes in topography. Additionally, with food robots, they are forced to stick to low speeds, such as under 10km/h, and have an array of sensors onboard to sense obstacles and other hazards which, if detected, will stop the device in its tracks. Once the obstacles are overcome, delivery robots can bring serious benefits. 'In inner-city areas, they can replace cars that pollute and contribute to traffic and take parking.' Prof Michael Bell, of the University of Sydney's Institute of Transport and Logistics Studies, believes the use case for delivery robots in Australia is behind that in overseas cities with greater population density and easier terrain to navigate. Instead, agriculture and mining are the industries leading the way for robotics in Australia, he said. Delivery robots' appeal lies in cutting labour costs and boosting efficiency in more certain and controlled environments, such as meeting couriers at the entrance to high-rise buildings to save them navigating elevators, or transporting food across university campuses. 'Couriers are expensive, so I think there is an economic driver here. Anything that can reduce courier kilometres or hours is going to be attractive,' Bell said. Kate Letheren, an associate professor at the Australian Catholic University's Peter Faber business school, predicts robots will lead to cheaper delivery options. 'We may eventually see decreases or perhaps tiered service offerings based on whether items are delivered by ground transport, air transport, a human, or a human augmented by technology,' she said. 'What we'll likely see first is increased value for customers, not necessarily in terms of price but in addressing common consumer annoyances around delivery,' she said. The new technology could also bring challenges. By making deliveries cheaper and more accessible, both through robots and drones, researchers have predicted Australians are set to eat more junk food, with implications for public health. The blurry legal status of delivery robots in Australia hasn't stopped local innovation, with startups instead focussing on establishing the technology in private environments. A team of student engineers from the Monash University's Connected Autonomous Vehicle team has developed a delivery robot specifically designed for defined areas such as campuses, industrial parks, shopping centres and hospitals. The robot, named Ari, is about one metre wide and tall, and relies on setting up a series of camera-like sensors across a specific area to travel at a speed of up to 6km/h. Ari relies on communicating with these sensors to move from a restaurant – where an employee loads an order – to a customer, as opposed to needing a constant internet connection to communicate with a control base. It means a higher upfront cost in establishing the network of sensors, but much less for the individual robots which are cheaper to build and ultimately to scale. 'The idea is that you have those high-density environments where you can install a bunch of cameras all at once. As they become more popular, they're much cheaper to keep adding and bringing more online,' said 24-year-old Shray Bagga, part of the team behind Ari. Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email Additionally, Ari boasts a unique feature its inventors believe sets it apart from competition. Heating and chilling compartments mean each Ari robot can be configured to deliver multiple orders at specific temperatures, meaning pizzas arrive piping hot, ice creams arrive frozen and pharmaceuticals remain at safe temperatures. Ari has already begun delivering food such as burgers and burritos across Monash University's Clayton campus, with its inventors now looking to commercialise the technology. Fellow inventor John Bui, 24, said beyond its labour saving potential, the temperature controlled compartments give Ari an advantage over competing robots and traditional delivery workers. 'Imagine a coffee or burrito arriving not just warm but hot,' Bui said. Ultimately, beyond the legal and technological hurdles, other key barriers slowing uptake of delivery robots could be behavioural and psychological. 'There is already a tension between pedestrians and e-scooter riders, so you could expect some tension if someone hungry is walking late at night and tries to tackle a robot to get a hold of a pizza,' Dia said. 'Obviously there will be locks protecting the food, but you hope people will treat them in a respectful way.'
