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| The delivery robot being loaded in China |
Equipped with a GPS system, cameras and radar, the robots are seen by their creator as the future of logistics in China, where he says one billion packages will eventually be delivered every day.
Travelling at a less than overwhelming three kilometres (two miles) per hour — a slow human walk — the robot has room for improvement, said one customer as she removed a packet of nuts from its bowels.
“The weak point is that it cannot deliver directly to the door like a human,” said the customer, who does not live on the ground floor.
“But it’s still quite practical. The robot delivers relatively quickly,” she said.
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| A delivery robot returning to base after delivering snacks to a customer |
The robot takes advantage of Chinese consumers’ love of cashless payments and smartphone shopping.
To get a delivery via the “little yellow horse”, the customer selects the desired products, taps in the address and pays via their phone.
The supermarket staff place the items in the robot, and the robot bustles off.
Liu Zhiyong, founder and CEO of Zhen Robotics, which manufactures the robot, sees a bright future for his yellow creation.
“At the moment, there are 100 million packages delivered every day in China. It will be one billion in the future,” Liu told AFP.
“There will not be enough humans to make the deliveries. We need more and more robots to fill this gap in manpower. And to reduce costs,” added the CEO.
These costs are especially high in the last kilometre of a delivery, where precision is key and a customised service is required to get the product to the front door.
Liu’s firm has already signed up Suning, a large electronics firm that also runs a network of small supermarkets.
But not everyone is convinced the robots are a long-term logistics solution.
Shao Zhonglin, former deputy secretary-general of the China Express Association, noted they were useful “over a short range”.
“It’s not certain however that they can be a broad solution for the final kilometre of delivery. Because the client still has to come down to get his package,” added Shao.
“Plus the costs remain quite high: buying and maintaining the robots, operating costs, etc.”
But Zhen Robotics is convinced the costs will come down over time.
And Liu has a warning for anyone trying to vandalise or steal the yellow robot.
“With GPS, we are constantly tracking them, cameras are filming and it can sound an alarm,” he said.
“Anyway, what would a thief do with it? It’s not exactly resellable.”
*AFP
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