FedEx is partnering with Reliable Robotics to incorporate the firm’s unmanned aircraft into its delivery fleet. Reliable Robotics, an aviation startup run by former Tesla and SpaceX engineers, completed test flights for two of its remote-piloted aircraft models in August, 2020.

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Start-up Refraction AI’s REV-1 is a lightweight, bike-like delivery robot, which is the creation of two University of Michigan professors. They claim it is a safer, more cost-effective solution for last mile logistics than anything in the current delivery paradigm.

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DHL has committed to deploying a total of 1,000 Locus Bots from US start-up Lotus Robotics to support next and same day deliveries.

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The US Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has provided a 2-year exemption to allow Nuro, based in Silicon Valley, to deploy its low-speed, occupantless electric delivery vehicle. Nuro will launch up to 5,ooo of its pint-sized, battery-powered vans for last-mile urban delivery.

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On November 1, UPS Flight Forward delivered prescription medication directly from a pharmacy in North Carolina to a customer’s home by drone. The Matternet M2 drone hovered 20 ft above the property before slowly lowering its package via a cable. The intent is to use drone deliveries for customers with limited mobility.

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Russian tech giant Yandex is testing its Yandex-Rover suitcase-sized robot with its autonomous car system to deliver documents to its Moscow shuttle. The robot moves at walking speed, and can operate in the dark.

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UPS Flight Forward has been granted the highly-restricted Part 135 air carrier certification, allowing approved UPS drones to fly over people, at night and out of the operator’s line of sight. Alphabet’s Wing subsidiary received the same certification in April.

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Later in 2019, Alphabet’s drone delivery arm Wing will begin delivering goods for FedEx Express, Walgreens and a small retailer in Christiansburg, Virginia. The pilot program is to test the delivery of health care products, and fill last-mile delivery needs.

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More than 30 robots have been launched at Purdue University’s West Lafayette campus, which is now the largest university campus in the world to have partnered with Starship Technologies to offer autonomous food delivery. The service works in conjunction with student meal plans, costing $1.99 per delivery. 

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The robotics company, Starship Technologies, has financing to deploy many autonomous sidewalk delivery robots to 100 US college campuses. The 6-wheeled robots are about knee-high, and fully electric. Since 2018, they have been tested in over 100 cities in 20 different countries, rolled 350,000 miles, crossed 4 million streets, and made over 100,000 deliveries.

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Amazon has officially rolled out its last-mile delivery robots in Irvine, Southern California. The delivery robot (‘Scout’) will autonomously ferry parcels from urban distribution points to Amazon Prime customers. Initially, the robots will be accompanied by humans.

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Domino’s, partnering with California-based tech startup Nuro, will use self-driving pods to deliver pizzas for a trial service in Houston, Texas late in 2019. The pod has no space for a human safety driver (but during the trial will be followed by an engineer in a vehicle traveling close behind).

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Amazon’s latest prototype of its Prime Air package delivery drone with improved energy efficiency and safety, will be delivering soon. The goal is to have fully-electric drones that can fly up to 15 miles and deliver packages under five pounds to customers in less than 30 minutes.

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San Francisco’s Starship Technologies makes six-wheeled delivery robots, which have travelled a combined 200,000 miles, carried out 50,000 deliveries, and been tested in over 100 cities in 20 countries.

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UPS has started delivering medical samples, using drones built by Matternet, at the WakeMed hospital and campus in Raleigh, North Carolina. The drones can carry up to 5lbs pounds over <12.5 miles. This is the first revenue-generating drone delivery scheme to be approved by the FAA.

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Future concept: Autonomous van travels to a neighbourhood and releases robot dogs to deliver packages to doorsteps.

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The company behind Walmart’s giant self-service kiosks has developed a self-driving car that delivers packages to homes and businesses. The car uses a robotic arm to place the packages in pickup lockers outside homes and businesses. Eventually, it will be able to deliver to mailboxes and pickup towers as well.

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Alphabet’s Wing spinoff will launch a drone delivery service in Helsinki in Spring 2019 – its first operation in Europe. The small-scale trial will be limited to packages up to 3.3 lb. (1.5 kg) on a round trip of <20 miles. Wing is surveying customer preferences with options including medicine, groceries, and lunch. Show full article

An Icelandic startup called Aha is using a Chinese-made drone and an Israeli logistics system to deliver hot food, groceries, and electronics to households in Iceland’s capital city of Reykjavik. Drones only use GPS with no safety features, and deliveries are lowered to the house with neighbours’ permission.

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In San Jose, California, you can now get groceries delivered by a self-driving car from the start-up AutoX. Currently, there is a backup driver inside. The order is in the trunk, with extra food to buy in the backseat.

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Start-up Volans-i’s drones can travel up to 500 miles carrying 20 pounds of cargo at a top speed of 200 mph. They use fixed wings, along with vertical-take-off-and-landing systems, for flight, and both batteries and fuel for propulsion. They can take off or land on any flat 15×15 ft platform.

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Limited package deliveries by commercial drones could be coming to the US shortly, overcoming regulatory roadblocks. Australia, Singapore, and Britain are the leaders in drone delivery technology. A food delivery service in Iceland is using autonomous drones to deliver orders, and UAVs are in use in the agricultural space.

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Drone startup Flirtey partnered with convenience store chain 7-Eleven to make the first commercial delivery to a private residence in Reno, Nevada on July 11. Flirtey flew an autonomous drone a mile from a 7-Eleven location. The order was packaged into two containers, each flown separately, and lowered to the ground to be retrieved by the homeowners.

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Domino’s Australia unveiled DRU (Domino’s Robotic Unit) — the world’s first commercial autonomous delivery vehicle that can do everything from navigating fences to talk to customers, and was built in collaboration with Marathon Robotics; an Australian technology startup that specializes in robotic targets for live-fire army training. The DRU is fully autonomous at 20 kph, and will initially be limited to neighborhood deliveries.

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