Snapdeal Tests Package Delivery With Autonomous Robots For COVID-19 Safety

Today, with COVID-19 spreading across our nation like wildfire, we¡¯re all very skeptical about hygiene and germs that are around us. Whether it is shopping outside or online.

However, it looks like Snapdeal is trying to cover the hygiene part with the help of delivery robots.

Snapdeal

Reported first by ET, Indian e-commerce giant Snapdeal has teamed up with robotics startup Ottonomy.IO and tested out delivery of products in the last leg of their delivery with the help of fully automated robots.

The robot developed by Ottomy.IO is designed to run on sidewalks and local streets without requiring any human intervention. The bot has cameras and sensors including a 3D LiDAR sensor that use AI algorithms to deliver products safely while avoiding crowded areas.

Once a delivery bot arrives at the doorstep of the buyer, a notification is passed to the device to ask him/her to come to the doorstep. Here the customer will have to scan a unique QR code sent to him to gain access to the locker. Moreover, the QR code only opens the bin/cavity that holds the recipient¡¯s package while the rest of the doors remain shut. These bins also have UV lights to disinfect the package while on its way to deliver it.

The trial deliveries were conducted in select locations of Delhi NCR. These robots were stationed at the entrance of residential societies where the delivery agent scanned the QR code and placed the package inside. Moreover, even though the robots are completely automated, they can be intervened by humans at any given point, should a need as such arise.

A Snapdeal spokesperson states, ¡°We believe that delivery robots will have a unique role to play in e-commerce deliveries in large townships, institutional campuses and other managed residential environments. Contactless delivery via robotic vehicles is a step in building a safer and convenient future for shoppers.¡±

Reuters

While it is great that contactless deliveries are making e-commerce safer, it is also important to note that it would come at the cost of requiring less human agents in the future, thus making a bigger dent in the unemployment rate that¡¯s already haunting the nation.