TL;DRBoston Dynamics is testing Spot with a conveyor belt payload to deliver packages from vans to doorsteps, targeting the last 50 feet of delivery.
Boston Dynamics is testing Spot, its four-legged robot, as a delivery worker that rides along in trucks and hops out to carry packages to customers’ doorsteps. The company posted a video on Tuesday showing a human driver loading packages onto a conveyor belt mounted on Spot’s back, followed by the robot walking up to houses and rotating the belt to set them down. It is the latest attempt to automate what Boston Dynamics calls the “porch gap,” the last 50 feet between a delivery van and a front door.
“So much of logistics is already automated, but we believe that the final frontier of logistics automation is that last 50 feet,” Marco da Silva, vice president and general manager for Spot at Boston Dynamics, said in a statement. The company said it is already in talks with major logistics companies to test Spot for last-mile deliveries. Spot has previously been used for security patrols at the World Cup, site inspections, and hazardous material surveys.
Spot’s advantage over wheeled delivery robots and drones is its legs, which let it handle curbs, stairs, gravel, snow, and ice. The conveyor payload includes stop sensors that allow the robot to split a single load into multiple doorstep deliveries, plus a small tray that slows drop speed to set packages down gently. Boston Dynamics says Spot can carry two parcels at a time and estimates that should cover at least 60 percent of the packages in an average delivery van.
