Starship Fleet Is Leading The Way
In the fast moving world of automation, the latest workers being replaced by robotics are Granville and his bike from Open All Hours and Postman Pat with his parcel van.
In a sign of things to come, a Co-op shop in Milton Keynes has been using self-driving trolleys for local home deliveries since May.
Customers pay just a pound for their grocery orders to be picked in the store and locked into robotic six-wheeled boxes before they are sent out on delivery.
These move slowly, at a maximum four miles per hour, along footpaths, using cameras and radar to dodge obstacles. They stop to allow pedestrians to clear their way forward.
Before their arrival, the customers will have been sent codes required to unlock the lid and retrieve their groceries.
Each of the fleet is continuously tracked via GPS whilst out on a mission, with transmissions from the camera, and other interference alerts, to deter any theft or vandalism.
These pavement pounding drones have been developed by the guys who founded Skype through their new venture, Starship Technologies, The Milton Keynes project is just one of a number of initiatives piloting the concept around the world.
Now Starship is extending the Milton Keynes fleet to making package deliveries.
Customers will use substitute addresses when ordering mail order goods so that their parcels are sent to a ‘Starship Sorting Hub.’
Once there, the customers can let the Hub know via the Starship App when they are home to receive deliveries and robots will sent along with the consignment.
I do wonder, though, what the local canine population of Milton Keynes makes of these developments.
