Walking-Flying Spidar

 Complex but very interesting thing out of Tokyo,   Can get you some ware fast and then walk the rest of the way.  The arrival may be scary,  but you then have the last 100 meters.    Instructive pix at the link show complexity involved,  

Oh, Good: A Flying Robotic SPIDAR Instead of actuators, this quadruped uses ducted thrusters to walk and fly    By Evan Ackerman

Robots with multimodal locomotion capability are almost always a compromise, because usually they’re a hodgepodge of mobility systems that don’t really work together. It’d be possible to make a legged robot fly by stapling a bunch of propellers to it, but at any given time, either the legs or the propellers are going to be mostly just awkward extra mass. Some robots make this compromise more elegantly than others, but it’s still a compromise.

A new quadrupedal robot under development at The University of Tokyo called SPIDAR aims to minimize this compromise by combining legs and propellers and relying on that combination for both walking and flying locomotion—instead of leg actuators, it’s got vectorable leg thrusters that can both move leg joints individually and get the entire robot completely airborne.

SPIDAR, in what is perhaps one of the worst backronyms of all time, stands for “SPherIcally vectorable and Distributed rotors assisted Air-ground amphibious quadruped Robot.” It is absolutely not a spider, since it has four legs rather than eight, but it does look sufficiently leggy to set off a similar squick response.  ... ' 

Japan Rolls Out 'Humble, Lovable' Delivery Robots

 Any videos out there of this to show them at a talk? 

Japan Rolls Out 'Humble, Lovable' Delivery Robots

France24, February 8, 2023

Japanese robotics companies are testing autonomous delivery robots to address a shortage of delivery workers, while hoping to eventually use the robots to help seniors in depopulated rural regions access goods. DeliRO robots deployed by Tokyo-based robotics company ZMP are remotely monitored by people ready to intervene when necessary; they sport large eyes that can look forlorn if pedestrians are in their way. ZMP's Hisashi Taniguchi said the robots must be "humble and lovable" so humans will trust them. Revised traffic laws will allow delivery robots to travel streets across Japan starting in April. Yutaka Uchimura at Japan's Shibaura Institute of Technology said traffic rules set a maximum speed of six kilometers (four miles) per hour for the robots, making the chances of injurious collision with them "relatively small." ... '

Miami gets Robotic Uber Eats

Might provide an interesting example of how people interact with robots providing simple services.  How much might this compete with fast food better than normal delivery services?

Uber Eats Launches Robot Delivery Service in Miami

CNN, Catherine Thorbecke, December 15, 2022

Ride-hailing company Uber Eats has launched a robot food delivery service in Miami via a partnership with robotics firm Cartken. Cartken's website says its six-wheeled robots feature sensors and cameras to evade collisions and select routes with the fewest hazards. Uber Eats will notify customers when their food is en route, then instruct them to meet the remotely supervised robot on the sidewalk. They can unlock the vehicle with their phone and retrieve their order from a secure compartment. The food delivery option initially will be available in Miami-Dade County's Dadeland region, with further expansion in the county and additional cities planned for next year. ... ' 

Are we falling in love with robots?

 Can see it, now even beyond the realm of computing work.

Are we falling in love with robots?

By Michael Dempsey  in the BBC, Technology of Business reporter

It's a fiercely hot afternoon in Milton Keynes and I'm chasing a small orange flag as it waggles just above a line of low garden walls. The flag is attached to a white robot with six wheels and I'm relieved to see that it's slowing down to a halt.

Cristiane Bonifacio has just extracted a large chocolate bar from the robot that has rolled up outside her home. Ms Bonifacio is in a hurry and has to dash back indoors for a work Zoom call, but she's got just enough time to express her affection for the robot delivery service that sends these machines scuttling along her local pavements.

"I love the robots. Sometimes you find one that's got stuck so you help it and it says 'thank you'."

The robot delivery service from Starship Technologies was launched in Milton Keynes four years ago and has been steadily expanding ever since, with further towns added just last month.

After decades of playing the villain in science fiction, robots are now part of life in many towns and people haven't just embraced them, they rush to assist them. What is going on?

Amber Case is an Oregon-based specialist in human-robot interaction

IMAGE SOURCE,DAN ROOT

Image caption,

"Technology can be adorable," says Amber Case

Amber Case is an Oregon-based specialist in human-robot interaction and the way technology changes everyday life. "In the movies robots are always a technology that's attacking us. But the delivery robots wait for us and we use them."

She thinks occasions when a robot hits an obstacle and requires help from a passer-by are a crucial part of the human-robot relationship. "Technology can be adorable if it needs our assistance. We like a robot that needs us a bit, and when we help the robot it creates a bond."

Curiously, Ms Case is critical of the Starship Technologies delivery robots that pepper the pavements of Milton Keynes.

They are battery-powered, summoned and opened by an app, equipped with sensors to detect pedestrians and armed with a speaker. This allows a remote human operator to address people observed through on-board video cameras.

Yet this arsenal of tech is not being applied correctly, she says. "I feel they are automating the wrong part of the journey. Humans are really good at negotiating terrain and finding a particular house. Is this just a fetish for automating things?"  .... ' 

Amazon Drone Delivers

Had heard of tests some time ago, will the air now soon be filled?

ACM TECHNEWS

Amazon Will Deliver Packages via Drone for First Time in U.S. Later This Year  By GeekWire, June 16, 2022

On June 13, Amazon announced that it is seeking permission from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration and local officials to begin drone deliveries in Lockeford, California, near Sacramento, later this year., Amazon, which unveiled its drone development program in 2013, said Prime Air-eligible items will be shown to Lockeford customers on its website.

The drones will fly to the customer's address, descend to the backyard, hover at a safe height, and release the package before rising again., Amazon's latest drone iteration will employ a sense-and-avoid system that can detect both moving and static obstacles.

The news comes amid expansion of drone delivery trials by UPS, in partnership with CVS; by Zipline and DroneUp, in partnership with Walmart; by Alphabet's Wing; and by SkyDrop (formerly known as Flirtey).

From GeekWire    View Full Article     

Seeing How Odor Is Processed in the Brain

Worked with the use of Odors for consumer interaction.   Never went far, now a breakthrough?  Very interesting details.

From ACM TechNews | June 3, 2022

Researchers created an odor delivery device, then used machine learning to analyze electroencephalograms to determine how the brain processes scents.

University of Tokyo (Japan)

Researchers at Japan's University of Tokyo (UTokyo) created an odor delivery device, then used machine learning (ML) to analyze electroencephalograms (EEGs) to determine how the brain processes scents.

Their device can dispense 10 unique odors to participants, who rated the pleasantness of each as EEG caps recorded their brain signals.  The ML analysis ascertained when and where the range of odors was processed in the brain, with high temporal resolution.

Said UTokyo's Mugihiko Kato, "We were surprised that we could detect signals from presented odors from very early EEG responses, as quickly as 100 milliseconds after odor onset, suggesting that representation of odor information in the brain occurs rapidly." ... 

During the EEG measurement, participants were asked to rate the pleasantness of the odors. They then evaluated the odors ranging from citrus and tea leaves, to mothballs and wet dog.  ... 

From University of Tokyo (Japan)     

View Full Article

Uber Tries Autonomous Food Delivery

How broadly, how practical?  Scale considerations?

Uber Launches Robot Food Delivery in California

By Reuters, May 26, 2022

Uber Technologies Inc. has rolled out pilot food delivery services that use autonomous vehicles in Santa Monica and West Hollywood, CA.

Both services are available to Uber Eats users, with one relying on autonomous cars, in collaboration with Motional, the self-driving joint venture of Hyundai Motor Co. and Aptive PLC, and another using sidewalk robots from Serve Robotics.

Human operators will monitor the autonomous vehicles in both services. Uber indicated that "it will be some time before this technology is operated at scale."  ... Uber said the autonomous cars and sidewalk robots are actively monitored by human operators, adding that "it will be some time before this technology is operated at scale." 

From Reuters

View Full Article   

Are we Ready for Drone Delivery?

 Drone use expanding

Amazon, Alphabet, Others Quietly Rolling Out Drone Delivery Across America

The Wall Street Journal, Christopher Mims, April 2, 2022

A handful of companies have initiated commercial drone delivery across the U.S., with Alphabet's Wing unit boosting deliveries in Virginia via drone due to the pandemic. Other examples include Israeli startup Flytrex following up two years of food-delivery testing in North Carolina with a new delivery station in Texas. Flytrex's Yariv Bash said commercial-scale U.S. drone delivery hinges on gaining certification for drones, via the same process used to certify passenger aircraft. No U.S.-based drone delivery company is fully certified to fly everywhere without either a human operator or monitor, and such services require permission from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which has a lengthy certification process. National deployments will require FAA approval for fully autonomous drone delivery.   ... ' 

3-D Printed Living Ink can Release Drugs

 New possibilities for more directly efficient delivery methods.  Continue to be impressed by the new capabilities introduced by 3D printing. 

3D-Printed 'Living Ink' Full of Microbes Can Release Drugs

New Scientist, Carissa Wong, November 23, 2021

A “living ink” made entirely from bacterial cells can be used in a three-dimensional (3D) printer to create structures that discharge drugs or absorb toxins. Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology genetically engineered the printable gel from proteins known as curli nanofibers, which are generated by E.coli cells; the nanofibers possess one of two oppositely charged modules attached to them, which crosslink. Filtering the bacteria through a nylon membrane concentrates the crosslinked fibers, making the gel printable. "The beauty of the work lies in the ability to genetically program the functional response of the printed living material," says André Studart at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich (ETH Zürich).

Wal-Mart Now Doing Driverless Delivery

My connections say that qualified drivers are very hard to get.  Which may push driverless adoption hard. Wal-Mart use will also likely push the industry's use.

Gatik’s self-driving trucks are now making driverless deliveries for Walmart in Arkansas in TechCrunch

Autonomous vehicle startup Gatik has reached a new milestone in its partnership with Walmart and within the industry.

Gatik said Monday it has pulled the safety operator from behind the wheel of two self-driving box trucks that operate in Walmart’s home turf of Bentonville, Arkansas. This means the startup’s box trucks are driverless on a commercial route — a first for the industry, according to Gatik CEO and co-founder Gautam Narang.

Gatik has taken a different approach from other competitors in the autonomous vehicle sector. The Palo Alto-based startup isn’t targeting consumers. Instead, Gatik uses its autonomous trucks to shuttle groceries and other goods from large distribution centers to retail locations. Gatik, which came out of stealth in 2019, has been shuttling goods for Walmart in Arkansas and Louisiana, and for Loblaw Companies Limited in Ontario, Canada.  .... '

Home Depot Hires Wal-Mart

 Yes, an intriguing retail development.

Is Home Depot’s deal with Walmart a sign of bigger things to come?

by George Anderson

Home Depot is hiring Walmart to handle local deliveries for its stores.

The retailers revealed today that they are teaming up to give Home Depot’s customers another way to have their online orders delivered on the same or next day. The two companies did not specify details, such as the length of the agreement or their financial arrangement.

The development marks the first publicly announced retailer deal for Walmart’s GoLocal delivery service, which debuted in August. The white label service, which uses third-party drivers, delivers orders for other businesses across the country. Walmart had said that it signed deals with both national and smaller accounts when it launched GoLocal but did not specify any companies at that time.  ... ' 

Drone Deliveries Build

Following this closely for for delivery, inspection, maintenance.

Wing Approaches 100,000 Drone Deliveries 2 Years After Launch   By TechCrunch

Two years after its pilot launched in Logan, Australia, Alphabet's drone delivery company Wing is nearing its 100,000th customer delivery.

Wing's Jonathan Bass said the service will be expanded in Australia, Finland, and the U.S. over the next six months.   However, Bass noted, "The capabilities of the technology are probably ahead of the regulatory permissions right now."

Wing's drones have a range of six miles and can carry up to three pounds. They travel at about 100-150 feet in the air, sink to about 23 feet at their destination, and lower packages to the ground with a tether.

From TechCrunch  

The company said customers placed orders for 4,500 deliveries during the first week of August, which works out to one every 30 seconds during Wings delivery window.  ....

Status of Autonomous Last-Mile

 Had wondered the status of this, after I saw some neighborhood bans reported.  have even volunteered to look at the Nuro example and report on it in situ.  Risk of sharing sidewalks with people.  Coming back? 

Last-Mile Delivery Robots Making a Comeback After Initial Bans  

July 22, 2021 , By John P. Desmond, Editor, AI Trends  

The last-mile delivery market for autonomous delivery robots is poised to make a comeback, with startups raising money and partnerships working to get needed permission from local governments.  

The autonomous vehicle delivery market was interrupted in 2017, when the city of San Francisco instituted a ban. Some pedestrians had complained that the delivery robots crowded the sidewalks and posed a hazard to humans.  

About a month after the first bot rolled down the sidewalk, San Francisco Supervisor Norman Yee proposed a ban on the use of the technology, citing public safety concerns, according to an account in ZDNet.    

“I resolutely believe that our sidewalks should be prioritized for humans,” Yee stated to the San Francisco Examiner. “We do not allow bicycles and Segways on our sidewalks.” (Segways were banned on city sidewalks in 2002, an action criticized as heavy-handed at the time.) Yee did not have the votes to pass the ban, so he settled for strict limitations at that time.  

He had heard from many pedestrians and some community activists about the risks of the delivery vehicles.  

“Sidewalks, I believe, are not playgrounds for the new remote controlled toys of the clever to make money and eliminate jobs,” stated Lorraine Petty, an activist with the community group Senior and Disability Action, at the hearing on Yee’s proposed rules. “They’re for us to walk.”  

“Not every innovation is all that great for society,” Yee stated at the hearing.  

Two years later, in 2019, grocery delivery company Postmates was given the first permit in San Francisco to test sidewalk delivery robots. The company worked with Yee for two years to get it done, according to a report in TechCrunch. 

The Postmates rover, called Serve, is semi-autonomous, with a human pilot monitoring the fleet and able to interact with customers via video chat. The robot, which has Velodyne Lidar sensors and an Nvidia Xavier processor, can carry 50 lbs and travel 30 miles on a single battery charge.  

The company worked on making Serve friendly. “We are spending a lot of time going in and refining and inventing new ways that Serve can communicate,” stated Ken Kocienda, an Apple veteran who had joined Postmates in 2019. (He now is product architect at Humane of San Francisco.) “We want to make it socially intelligent. We want people, when they see Serve going down the street, to smile at it and to be happy to see it there.”     ... ' 

Tracking Missing Packages with AI

Good to see USPS in on this.

USPS Uses Edge AI Apps to Help Track Down Missing Packages Faster  By FedTech Magazine

If your package gets lost in the mail, artificial intelligence may soon be coming to the rescue to speed up its delivery.

The U.S. Postal Service has partnered with the technology company NVIDIA to roll out edge artificial intelligence applications that are helping the service track down packages in a matter of hours instead of days, according to an NVIDIA blog post.

Together with NVIDIA, the U.S.P.S. has stood up the Edge Computing Infrastructure Program to analyze the billions of images the postal service's processing centers generate. The program, which leverages the NVIDIA EGX platform, can process vast quantities of data and quickly help the U.S.P.S. hunt for packages.

From FedTech Magazine

AWS Provides Advanced Location Services

Considerable detail here on the services involved.   Makes sense, they are the practitioners now.

Amazon Location Service Generally Available With Routing and Satellite Imagery By Renato Losio    in Infoq

AWS has recently announced the general availability of Amazon Location Service, a managed solution designed to add location functionalities to applications. The service relies on location providers like Esri and HERE and now supports routing and satellite imagery capabilities.

Amazon Location Service includes five main features for location-based developments: maps, to visualize location information, places, to support geocoding and reverse geocoding capabilities, routes, trackers and geofences. Among the most common use cases, Location Service is designed for building delivery applications, asset tracking and geomarketing .... " 

Kroger Drone Delivery Experiment

 Had not heard much of this, but Kroger is apparently testing at a Centerville Ohio Kroger not far from us. Can someone from there provide some observations?  Some interesting details in the article below. Given the limitations, is this primarily a pharma delivery experiment? 

Kroger takes flight with drone delivery test  in RetailWire, with retail expert comment.

Kroger thinks that drone deliveries have the potential to help transform its e-commerce operations.

The largest grocery chain operator in the U.S. announced yesterday a pilot program testing the use of autonomous drones to deliver online orders from a Kroger in Centerville, OH.

Jody Kalmbach, group vice president of product experience at Kroger, called the test an “evolution” of the company’s seamless shopping ecosystem including pickup, delivery and shipping.

“The pilot reinforces the importance of flexibility and immediacy to customers, powered by modern, cost-effective and efficient last-mile solutions. We’re excited to test drone delivery and gain insights that will inform expansion plans as well as future customer solutions,” Ms. Kalmbach said in a statement.

Kroger’s online sales topped $10 billion in 2020 as the company pushed ahead with a multi-year plan to meet consumers where, when and how they find most convenient.

The pilot program, run with Drone Express, a division of Telegrid Technologies, enables Kroger to identify dropoff points based on the location of a customer’s smartphone. This means that the store testing the drones will be able to bring condiments, sunscreen or other items to a park, for example, if a customer forgets to pack them for an afternoon picnic.

Customers placing orders can get their products within as little as 15 minutes. There are weight limits, however, with each order having a five-pound capacity. Kroger is offering special product bundles, such as child wellness (over-the-counter medications, wipes, etc.) and S’mores, which comes with all the fixings for the gooey, sugary summer delight. Customers at the Centerville store may place orders by going to Kroger.com/DroneDelivery. ... "

(The address at the end provides some public detail from Kroger and media connections I am following)   ... 

Chipotele Wants to use Autonomous Nuro Delivery

 Surprising to me, given the number of delivery services out there.   Note the use of Nuro, which many retailers have tested.   Still want to  see one of these operating autonomously, have not heard much new of late about its operations. 

Chipotle is the latest company to get behind robot cars. Here’s why

Chipotle just invested big in an autonomous delivery company. Their CTO explains why and what the process will look like.

By Mark Wilson

Nuro is the autonomous vehicle company that big brands love. With a focus on delivery, Nuro’s cute, driverless vehicle that’s optimized to hold goods has attracted partnerships with Walmart, Kroger, and CVS, along with over $1 billion in funding since 2017.

This week, Chipotle joined the list of Nuro’s backers, investing an undisclosed amount in the company’s latest round of funding.

Nuro has been a golden child of the startup world since 2017. Like many other AV startups, it’s been testing its technologies tentatively over several years to polish them for wider release. The strategy seems to be paying off for Nuro. Its Nuro R2 vehicle has become the first autonomous car approved to operate without a driver on roads across three different states (California, Arizona, and Texas).  ... " 

Sidewalk Robots Get Rights

Coming changes in urban and suburban views.

Sidewalk robots get legal rights as "pedestrians"   By Jennifer A. Kingson in Axios

As small robots proliferate on sidewalks and city streets, so does legislation that grants them generous access rights and even classifies them, in the case of Pennsylvania, as "pedestrians."

Why it matters: Fears of a dystopian urban world where people dodge heavy, fast-moving droids are colliding with the aims of robot developers large and small — including Amazon and FedEx — to deploy delivery fleets. ... ' 

California Approves Nuro for Delivery

Have been following Nuro for some time.  With showed
an interesting looking vehicle.  Especially by the examination by Kroger.  An autonomous delivery method. 

Nuro can now charge for robot deliveries in California  By Mitchell Clark   in theVerge 

The permit allows them to charge for human-free deliveries

Nuro is now the first company in California that’s allowed to operate autonomous cars commercially (via TechCrunch). The company received a permit that allowed it to test its robots earlier this year, but this permit will allow the firm to actually charge people for the service.

According to a Medium post by Nuro’s chief legal and policy officer, the company is planning to “announce [its] first deployment in California with an established partner.” Who that partner is remains to be seen, but it’s likely to be a delivery service that can make use of Nuro’s completely driverless Prius vehicles, though the company plans on (literally) rolling out its own custom R2 bots later on.  ... "  

Autonomous Cars Delivering Meds in London

More attempts at automated delivery:

Autonomous Green Robot Cars to Deliver Medicine Around London

Interesting Engineering By Chris Young

A fleet of autonomous, electrically-powered green robot vehicles has started delivering medicine to care homes in London's Hounslow borough, as part of a public trial. The Kar-go, from U.K. startup Academy of Robotics, will be the first custom-built autonomous delivery vehicle to conduct last-mile deliveries on public roads in Britain. The robot car can travel at 96 kilometers (60 miles) per hour, carry a maximum load of 48 parcels, and use artificial intelligence to sort out parcels and calculate the speediest delivery route. The initial trials will have human operators sitting inside the Kar-gos, before they eventually transition to fully autonomous driving. The vehicle will drive itself to and from the sender and recipient's address, with a smartphone application alerting the recipient upon arrival. A robotic conveyor within the Kar-go enables contact-free parcel handover  ... "