Akihabara News (Tokyo) — Japan Post has conducted demonstration experiments of a package delivery system that links the roles of drones and robots.
The experiments conducted in December started out with a worker at Okutama Post Office in the center of Okutama town, Tokyo, loading a package onto a ACSL-PF2 drone which can be programmed and monitored via a cellular network.
The drone flew to a second location where it dropped the package onto a small structure which funneled it to the awaiting robot.
The robot, a ZMP DeliRo, looks something like a cross between a small red bus and a dump truck, anthropomorphized with moving electronic eyes and the voice of a young Japanese boy.
The robot then drove the “final mile” to deliver the packages to houses.
Japan Post intends that the drone-robot combination might solve one of the problems with drone package delivery, which is that there are limited spaces available where drones can safely land.
For most other drone delivery services under development in Japan, it means that either package recipients must still leave their homes to go to collection points, or else staff must be standing by in order to actually provide door delivery.
Japan Post has now demonstrated the potential for a future system in which mail and package delivery could become fully automated, from central post office to the doors of remote houses.
Japan Post has been experimenting with drone delivery systems since 2017.
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